Irish Roots Weekly

A note to start the week

Thanks for joining us again. As winter settles in, it feels like a good time to look at the traditions and stories that travelled with Irish families across generations. From a simple ring to an old song, from markets and mines to a warning figure on a cliff, this week brings a mix of heritage that is easy to read and grounded in truth.

How to Wear a Claddagh Ring

💍 The Claddagh ring began in the old fishing village of Claddagh outside Galway City. The hands, heart, and crown design is widely linked to Richard Joyce, a Galway man captured by Barbary pirates in the 1600s. During his captivity he trained as a goldsmith. When he returned home, he brought with him a level of skill that helped shape the first Claddagh rings.

The ring became a wedding symbol across the West. By the 1700s only a small group of Galway goldsmiths made them, and their hallmarks can still be found in collections today. As emigration grew, the Claddagh ring travelled with families to America, Canada, Britain, and Australia. It became a quiet marker of identity and loyalty far from home.

The meanings remain clear, and all four are worn on the ring finger:

Single:
Right hand, heart pointing outwards ❤️

In a relationship:
Right hand, heart turned inward 💛

Engaged:
Left hand, heart pointing outwards 💚

Married:
Left hand, heart turned inward 💙

A small piece of Galway that crossed oceans and never lost its meaning.

With Christmas coming in, a Claddagh can make a simple and meaningful gift. If you would like to see our own collection, you can find it in the Irish Roots shop, and remember you have 10 percent off.

The Fields of Athenry

Written in 1979 by Pete St. John, The Fields of Athenry draws on the reality of famine-era transportations. Around 4,000 people were sent from Ireland to penal colonies between the 1840s and 1850s. Many, like the fictional Michael, were sentenced for stealing food or livestock at a time when hunger pushed families past their limits.

The song’s strength comes from the voice of Michael’s wife, watching him taken away. It reflects what thousands experienced as ships left Irish ports for Australia. One recorded transport ship, the Lord Auckland, carried famine convicts from Cork in 1848 with more than half under the age of thirty. Stories like these sit behind every line of the ballad.

From quiet sessions to packed stadiums, it has become a shared anthem of memory and endurance.

Fish-wives of Galway Market, 1900 to 1910

In Galway’s market square, the fish-wives kept the coastal economy moving. They bought the catch at the Claddagh boats, gutted it on the quayside, and carried heavy creels into town before sunrise. Many walked miles inland to sell to farmhouses and cottages that had no access to markets.

Census records show entire households built around the fishing trade, with daughters learning the work from a young age. Visitors often wrote about the sharp negotiation skills of Galway women, noting how rarely they lost a bargain. Their role was more than commercial. They moved news, stories, and prices between the Claddagh and the town, acting as a social link as well as traders.

A single photograph hints at their strength. Their real legacy is the daily labour that supported entire communities.

The Metal Man of Tramore Bay

The Metal Man has watched over Tramore Bay since 1823. He was placed there after the tragic wreck of HMS Sea Horse in 1816, when only 30 of the 394 people on board survived. The disaster pushed Lloyd’s of London to improve coastal warnings along the Waterford shoreline.

Thomas Kirk, a leading Irish sculptor, created the iron figure dressed in a sailor’s uniform and pointing toward Hook Head. Two stone pillars were placed on the opposite headland. Together they formed a clear visual guide that ships were told to keep outside of to avoid the sandbanks that had taken so many lives.

A nearby signal station monitored the bay for much of the 19th century, logging ships and weather. Over time a short local rhyme formed around the statue, and it has stayed part of Waterford’s coastal memory.

The Copper Mines of Bunmahon

The cliffs around Bunmahon were mined for lead, silver, and copper from the 1700s, but the 1800s brought a major shift. The Mining Company of Ireland transformed Knockmahon into one of the busiest industrial sites in the country. Nearly a thousand people worked there at its peak. Conditions were tough. Letters from the time describe flooding, poor ventilation, and narrow shafts, but the mines offered steady wages in a rural area with few options.

In 1850 operations moved to Tankardstown. Engine houses, workshops, and deep shafts were built along the cliffs, and Waterford exported thousands of tonnes of copper during the 1860s. When prices fell and the seams thinned, the industry collapsed. Many miners emigrated to Montana and Michigan, where new copper fields needed skilled men.

A group returned in 1906 hoping to restart work, but the deposits were too weak and the shafts unsafe. Today the remains form part of the Copper Coast UNESCO Global Geopark, preserving a rare piece of Ireland’s industrial history.

A moment to finish

Thanks for reading along this week. Ireland’s stories often start small, but they travel far. I hope something here brought a bit of warmth or curiosity to your day.

Talk soon and mind yourselves 💚

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