Galway

<h4>Galway – Where Love Stories Begin!</h4>
<h4>By Brian Nolan</h4>
<p>If you were in Dublin right now, you could go down to Whitefriars church where they keep Saint Valentine’s heart, and you could write a message to your beloved. Kinda creepy, kinda cute, kinda romantic. But hey, you’re not in Dublin, you are in Galway, and here in the west, we keep our hearts where they should be, inside of our sweaters, and not on display in a glass case!</p>
<h4>Here on the streets of Galway, love is around every corner; you just have to know here to look.&nbsp;</h4>
<p>On the junction of High Street, Cross Street and Quay Street, you will see hanging off the gable of Dillons Jewellers, a bright golden Claddagh Ring, a symbol of probably the best-known love story in Galway.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The huge Claddagh ring sign that hangs there was lovingly restored by local sign-write Mike Kenny, using lots of 18 carat gold leaf! Imagine, no ordinary gold paint for this extraordinary symbol of love in our city. This is the real thing!&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/96fd7f54-f1ba-4149-a2f9-70ae98aa1177.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<p>The love story it commemorates kicked off in 1675 when a handsome teenager, Richard Joyce, aged only fifteen years, boarded a two-masted sailing ship that was berthed at Galway harbour, roughly where the Spanish Arch now stands, part of the city fortifications that protected merchant ships while they were loading and unloading cargo.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>A Galway Girl</h4>
<p>He was seen off by his teenage crush, a young and beautiful Galway girl. However much Richard Joyce may have loved his Galway girl, we are not sure if Richard was leaving the city willingly, or unwillingly.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Was he a prisoner? Was he collateral damage from the siege of Galway in 1652, captured by the Cromwellian army, destined to serve as an indentured servant?&nbsp;</p>
<p>Possibly, he was lined up to be worked to death on a sugar cane plantation in the tropical heat of Barbados where typhoid, malaria and sunstroke claimed the lives of 90% of the fieldworkers.</p>
<p>Or, as some believe, Richard Joyce was the son of a wealthy Galway merchant - a Joyce  - one of the fourteen Tribes or Clans of Galway, and owner of one of those profitable sugar-cane plantations.</p>
<p>Would Richard serve his father, and learn the lucrative rum trade? I suppose we will never know.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/b9d13ff9-8961-473d-972e-a29e6ebd364f.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<h4>What We Do Know:</h4>
<p>What we do know is that the ship he was sailing to Barbados on was attacked and captured by Barbary pirates somewhere near the Azores. The pirates, known as Corsairs, were operating out of Algiers in North Africa, raiding with impunity the rich cargo galleons that were plying the seas between Europe and the Americas.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Richard Joyce now found himself sold off as a slave in Algiers to a Turkish goldsmith, who taught him the jewellery trade. Apparently, he became an eminent craftsman, a master silversmith and either bought his freedom, or escaped, journeying from Morocco, through Spain, where he boarded a ship at Corunna, that took him back to Galway, and to his sweetheart, the same girl who had waved goodbye to him at Galway quay and had waited faithfully for his return for 16 years. Now that’s love!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/ab37b0a7-2180-4c5b-bd36-42c0aec7eb6d.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<h4>The Claddagh Ring:</h4>
<p>Richard gave her a ring that he had fashioned for her during his time in captivity, that he named the Claddagh ring, after the little fishing village that sits opposite the Spanish Arch. Perhaps she came from there, or maybe was that his home?&nbsp;</p>
<p>That ring is now known worldwide as a triple-token of Love, Loyalty, and Friendship, as represented by the three symbols, the Heart, the Crown and the Hands that grace the ring.</p>
<p>What is less well known is that the Claddagh ring design is based on a much earlier, and quite popular ‘Fede’ ring.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/eac87213-2eca-442c-a190-67ddf525c464.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<h4>The Fede Ring:</h4>
<p>The Fede ring symbolised love and friendship. Dating from Roman times, it depicted two hands clasping a heart, or covering a heart. Richard Joyce added the crown to his design, a symbol of royalty yes, but also a symbol of loyalty.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Richard likely spent some time in Spain on his journey home from Algiers. It's thought he eventually sailed home from Corunna (A Coruña, or La Coruña), a large port in northern Spain, and at that time, 1691, the capital of the kingdom of Gallica.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Translated from Galician, Coruña means Crown. </strong></p>
<p>Galwegians were quite familiar with Corunna, as it was the starting point for the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a popular pilgrimage dedicated to Saint James, followed by Christians in the 16th and 17th century, and still popular today.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Is it possible that Richard Joyce borrowed the Galician crown for his Claddagh ring? Did Richard design the ring for her while he was in captivity, or did he make it for her in Corunna, or after he returned to Galway? We simply don’t know.</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/e8a799ce-19e3-485e-b81b-6f3b2acd9653.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<h4>The Path of True Love</h4>
<p>I do suppose she was thrilled with the ring. More so, I’m sure she was totally thrilled to get her true love back. She must have sat by the quayside at the Spanish Arch for years, waiting in vain for his return, praying for their reunion, hoping that by some miracle he had survived whatever shipwreck or disaster that may have befallen him, believing all that time that he too was thinking of her, and likewise hoping that she would still love him on his return. Isn’t the power of love amazing!&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/eccde3d5-4131-4682-bc95-a1f3857cd4ac.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>
<p></p>
<h4>Love may be amazing, but it’s often quite unfair.&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Oh before you ask, no, we don’t know her name! For some reason we remember his name, and his story, but not her’s!&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Galway Museum has on display a very unusual Claddagh ring that Richard Joyce made, some time before he died in 1735. They also have on display a silver chalice and an unusual votive shrine, also in silver, both made by Richard Joyce. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday – Saturday, 9.30am to 5pm. Admission is free.</p>
<p>Keep the Galway Love going – you can buy an authentic Claddagh Ring at any of the many excellent jewellery shops in Galway.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<p>Brian Nolan</p>
<p>Galway Walks – Walking Tours of Galway</p>
<p>Cover Photo courtesy of <a href="https://galwaycitymuseum.ie/blog/richard-joyce-and-the-oldest-known-claddagh-ring/" target="_blank">Galway City Museum website.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>


A Love Story and The Origins Of The Claddagh Ring in Galway

DOWNLOAD AND XPLORE