There's an unusual carving on a grave slab in Ballinderreen, Co Galway - a detailed linear representation of a gaff-rigged craft, writes Lorna Siggins
Accurately drawn above the waterline, the boat is bedecked with pennants from its mast and bowsprit. This was one of the original Connemara work boats, and the image marks the remains of Will Feeney, who died on March 14th, 1778.
Ballinderreen, where Mr Feeney rests, was once a "brandy harbour" - a haven for smugglers trading between Galway and France at the time of the Penal Laws. Large quantities of wool were exported illegally, with tea, wine, brandy and tobacco carried on the return. Near Kinvara village, a French sailor, Captain de la Maine, had a secret tunnel from his cellar to the shore - a perfect conduit for contraband landed in the dead of night.
Several centuries later, the lawn of Captain de la Maine's former residence is now used for a very important purpose - good shore viewing of the púcáns and gleoiteogs, and within earshot of orders given "as Gaeilge" by the skippers of the larger Galway hookers participating in the annual "gathering of the turfboats", Cruinniú na mBád.
The "cruinniú" is a quarter-century old itself this summer, and the story of Mr Feeney's grave, the captain's lodge and many other key events in Kinvara's association with the workboat have been recorded in an illustrated account.
Three "iconic" photographs taken in Kinvara between 1900 and 1908 provide the introduction to Turf Boats by Tom Quinn - and the inspiration for the Galway hooker revival. The first, which came to light during the first "cruinniú" in 1979, shows a fleet of vessels in the harbour, surrounded by horse cars - some fitted with creels or carts, and some delivering corn.
Smuggling, poteen-making, turf deliveries, water shortages, and the work of the dredging currachs which used to harvest oysters on the south Galway shores are among the many activities recorded in Quinn's account. The number of crew to each dredging currach was "meticulously calculated" to reflect each man's entitlement to a sea "holding", which was in turn calculated on the amount of land owned by the small farmers in the area.
The dredging would take place during December and the crews would scoop up cupfuls of water to drink every so often - not salty, but freshwater from underground rivers flooding into the bay. "At home the same men might have to walk half a mile to a well or a pump." Quinn also writes of local personalities, including the founders of Cruinniú na mBád. Subtle changes were already taking place in Kinvara during the year of that first event, he notes. The last blacksmith in the area was working only occasionally. Farms were expanding, as were fields to accommodate bigger and better tractors.
However, everyone knew everyone on that misty day of August 10th, 1979, when shapes across the bay "materialised and darkened" into sailboats, and an impatient crowd watched the first of a fleet, the Mhaighdean Mhara, approaching the pier head. The first boat in had been the last to trade across the bay in 1947. The Turf Boats by Tom Quinn is available by email - cruinniu@kinvara.com - for €20, with all proceeds going to the annual Galway hooker festival.
If the "cruinniú" is now a major tourist event marking its 25th birthday, another publication on the same theme is also coming of age. It was back in 1983 when Dick Scott, a Drogheda-born public servant, sailor, author and broadcaster wrote his first book, The Galway Hooker. Scott had been introduced to the vessels by the late Harry Knott, who had a converted gleoiteog, and this initiated a "lifelong passion" for traditional craft.
Scott acquired his own gleoiteog, the Orlagh, and wrote his definitive account on the vessels with the encouragement of the late Johnny Simon Ó Ceoinín of Carna, Co Galway. Twenty-one years later, the book's fourth edition is now being issued, complete with a DVD of Na Húicéirí, the documentary made for TG4 and broadcast last year by Éamon and Cian de Buitléar, which recently won a Connacht Gold John Healy journalism award.
Publication of the new edition was marked in Kinvara, Co Galway, on election day (June 11th) and among the many hooker owners present were Johnny Bailey, owner of the Capall, Martin O'Brien of the Tónaí, and John Darby of the American Mór. Also celebrating were Sean MacDonnacha and Ruaidhraí Ó Tuairisc of the Galway Hooker Association committee; the Jennings family of Long Walk, Galway, Joe Gormley of Cruinniú na mBád Kinvara, and Paddy McDonagh of the Roundstone Regatta.
The Galway Hookers is published by The A.K. Ilen Company (www.ilen.ie) at 94 Henry St, Limerick and is also available in bookshops.
Meanwhile down south, the poet Domhnall Mac Síthigh has made his unique contribution to Irish maritime history. During the winter of 2000 to 2001, MacSithigh built a naomhóg, or traditional west Kerry currach, in Cabinteely, Co Dublin. It was launched in Ballyferriter, Co Kerry, last December.
As he worked on the project, Mac Síthigh kept a record which was published recently by Coiscéim. The record, written in Irish, is interlaced with narratives of the sea, fishing stories,and interspersed with illustrations by Maria Hegarty.
Fán Inti: Naomhóga ó Chorca Dhuibhne go Caban tSíle by Domhnall MacSíthigh is dedicated to every fisherman who relied on these craft for his livelihood - "do gach iascaire naomhóige beo agus marbh".