Finding romance with a real ring to it
‘ALL you need is love – but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” That classic line from the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon strip pretty much sums up what this week is all about as the romance industry cranks up to max throttle for Valentine’s Day.
Yet, while the traffic jams of endearment clogging the electronic superhighway everywhere from Tinder to Match.com will doubtless take top billing in 2018, it’s comforting to know that Ireland was at least four centuries ahead in the courtship curve when it came to mapping out a unique code to romantic availability. The Claddagh Ring – a symbol of affection dating back to the 1700s – was conceived in the iconic fishing village close to Galway City, complete with a story designed to tug the heartstrings of lovers from Beijing to Ballyragget. Legend has it that a local lad, Richard Joyce, was returning home from the West Indies for his wedding when he was captured by Algerian pirates and sold as a slave to a Moorish goldsmith. When he was finally released after a decade of confinement, Joyce had become such a master craftsman that his Moorish master offered him a business partnership and the hand of his daughter as inducement to stay.
Undeterred by such temptations, he returned to his native Claddagh and the arms of the woman who had waited steadfastly for his return. To mark their undying affection, he crafted the iconic ring – designed with interlocking hands to represent friendship, a crown to illustrate loyalty and a heart to symbolise their enduring love.
An essential element of the ring’s continuing appeal is undoubtedly its unique messaging: if worn with the crown pointing towards the finger nail, he or she is in love or engaged. Worn with the heart pointing to the finger nail, the wearer is said to be unattached.
As intriguing as the ring itself were the natives of the Claddagh – an independent, free-spirited community ruled by a locally-elected ‘King’ whose regal privilege was the right to hoist a white sail on his fishing boat. Even in those harsh colonial days, the Claddagh was a place apart, a watertight society that kept to itself, married within its boundaries and maintained a resolute devotion to ancient traditions.
“They call anyone who does not belong to their community a stranger; even a man from the next parish,” observed John Leech in his 1859 travelogue, ‘A Little Tour In Ireland’. “Though their garments are patched and discoloured, there is a graceful simple dignity about them which might teach a lesson to the finest Parisian milliners. One likes the people, they do not go beyond their limitations, but they adhere to them.”
The ring and its people – proud symbols of the way we were.