The Claddagh Ring

Claddagh was once a fiercely independentfishing village outside Galway City in the west of Ireland. Since 1934 it has just been a suburb of the city. However one tradition lives on- The Claddagh Ring.

As legend has it, the town developed the ring (originally a sigil to be painted on ships and sails) to be worn by sailors of Claddagh. When these sailors would run into other fishermen in their waters, they would check for the sigil,and if they did not find it, they would kill them.

The original Claddagh ring is generally attributed to one Richard Joyce, of Galway. Joyce departed from Claddagh,a small fishing village where the waters of the River Corrib meet Galway Bay, on a ship enrouteto the plantations of the West Indies. That week he was to was to be married, but his ship was captured by Mediterranean Algerianpirates and the crew were sold as a slaves; Rihcard Joyce was sold to a Moorish goldsmith who trained him in his craft. He soon became a master in his trade and hand crafted a ring for the woman at home he could not forget. In 1689 he was released after William III came to thethrone of England and concluded an agreement whereby all his subjects who where held in captivity bythe Moors were to be allowed return to their homes. The Moorish goldsmith offered Robert Joyce his only daughter in marriage and half his wealth if he would remain in Algiers. He declined and returned to Claddagh to find that the woman of his heart had never married. He gave her the ring and they were married and he set up a goldsmith shop in thetown of Claddagh. (The Claddagh is said to be the oldest fishing village in Ireland). The earliest Claddagh rings to be traced bear his mark and the initial letters of his name, RI (Richard Joyce).Claddagh rings were traditionally worn by women on the West Coast.

The ring has a design of a heart being encircledby a pair of delicate hands with a crown above the heart.In earlier times this design was the symbolof the "Fishing Kings of Claddagh" meaning 'in love and friendship let us reign'.

In the 17th century the symbol was first depicted on a ring which became the fashionable exchangeof friends or lovers. If the woman wore it on her right hand with the heartpointing towards the nail it meant she was open tooffers of marriage. Worn on the left hand with the heart pointing away from the nail means shewas engaged to be married.Claddagh rings are still made in Ireland andused as friendship rings, and are popular all over the world.

Huge numbers of Claddagh rings were left with a Mr. Kirwan following the Great Famine 1846-47 which finally had to be consigned to the melting potas there was nobody to redeem or purchase them, hence the difficulty in ascertaining their origin. According to Dr. Kurt Ticker in"The Claddagh Ring - A West of Ireland Folklore Custom" (1980) interest in Claddagh rings became dormant afterRichard Joyce ended his manufacturing careerin the 1730s, and it was revived a generation or more later, probably by George Robinson (Dillon in fact had attributed the earliest ring to Robinson).From then on a number of Galway goldsmithsand jewellers of Galway made Claddagh rings. Their early manufacture was by cuttle-bone mould casting, then the cire perdue or "lost wax" process up to the 1840s, when manufacture became commercialised. Dillon describes some early rings, one with a mitre-like crown, rings made from coins, an analogous ring from Brittany, a "Munster" ring, also Spanish rings with some similarities. He tells us that the Claddagh ring was the only ring ever made in Ireland worn by Queen Victoria and later by Queen Alexandra and King Edward VII. Their rings were made by Dillons of Galway, established in 1750, to whom the Royal Patent was granted and the tradition has been carriedon at Dillons to this day. Prince Rainierand Princess Grace of Monaco in 1962 were presented with gifts embodying the Claddagh ring motif set in Connemara marble.
There are many modern versions of the Claddagh Ring. Here are some folk legends about the Claddagh:

It symbolizes LOVE (heart), FRIENDSHIP & FAITH(hands), and LOYALTY & FIDELITY(crown).
There was a Dublin version of this ring that appeared some 100 years back with two hands and two Hearts but no Crown. Some call this version the Fenian Claddagh.
The Crown to The Father, The Left hand to the Son, and the Right Hand the the Holy Ghost. This explanation is directly correlated to the Shamrock, one of the earliest symbols of the Holy Trinity among the Irish.

Some will say that the crown represents Beathauile. The left hand represents Anu who was the ancestral and universal mother of the Celts and who later changed her name Danu. The right hand represents Dagda Mor, the father of the gods who was so powerful he had the power to make the sun stand still. The heart represents the Hearts of all mankind and that which gives the everlasting music to the Gael.

Way back in the sandy mists of time, so the story went, there was a great king who was madly in love with a peasant woman--but as she was of a lower class his love had to go unrequited. In suicidal the king killed himself and had his hands lopped off and placed around his heart as a symbol of his undyinglove for the woman.

Another version o the Joyce tale tells that a Margaret Joyce married Domingo de Rona, a wealthy Spanish merchant who traded with Galway. They proceeded to Spain, where he died, leaving her a considerable fortune. Returning to Galway she usedher fortune to build bridges from Galway to Sligo,and married one Oliver Og French, Major of Galway 1596-7.She was rewarded for her good works and charity by an eagle who dropped the original Claddagh ring into her lap.

By tradition the ring is taken to signify the wish that Love and friendship should reign supreme. The hands signify friendship, the crown loyalty, and the heart love. The ring has become popular outsideConnamera since the middle of the last century - its spread being helped by the vast exodus from the West during the great Famine in 1847-49. These rings were kept as heirlooms with greatpride and passed from mother to daughter. Today, the ring is worn extensively across Ireland, either on the right hand with the heart turned outwards showing that the wearer is "fancy free" or with the heart turned inwards to denote that he or she is "spoken for". The pride of place is on the left hand, with the heart turned in, indicating that the wearer is happily married and the love and friendship will last forever, the two never separated.