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Claddagh ring

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Claddagh ring

The Claddagh ring (Irish: fáinne Chladaigh) is a traditional Irish ring given as a token of love or worn as a wedding ring. The design and customs associated with it originated in the Irish fishing village of Claddagh, located just outside the city of Galway. The ring was first produced in the 17th century during the reign of Queen Mary II, though elements of the design are much older.

Symbolism

The Claddagh's distinctive design features two hands (one male, one female) clasping a heart, and usually surmounted by a crown. The elements of this symbol are often said to correspond to the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown).

The wearing of a Claddagh ring in modern usage is usually intended to convey the wearer's romantic availability, or lack thereof. The ring is worn on the right hand with the heart oriented away from the wearer, to show that the wearer is not romantically linked. When turned the other way, it shows that the wearer is in a relationship, or their heart has been "captured". When worn on the left hand with the heart oriented again away from the wearer, it implies the wearer is engaged; turned the other way, it indicates the wearer is married.[1]

Origins

The Claddagh ring was inspired by a widespread group of finger rings called “Fede Rings”.[2] The name "fede" comes from the Italian phrase mani in fede ("hands in trust" or "hands in faith"). These rings date from Roman times, when the gesture of clasped right hands (dextrarum iunctio) was a popular design style (vid. Jones). Fede rings are cast in the form of two clasped hands, symbolizing faith, trust or “plighted troth.” Fede rings were popular in the Middle Ages throughout Europe, and there are examples from this era in the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin.[2]

Jones and Kunz do classify the Claddagh as a fede ring--it is "an Irish WEDDING/BETROTHAL ring" as these scientists classify it. A fede ring has clasped hands--the Claddugh does not have clasped hands. So it's inspired by the fede but is not a fede in itself. To say the Claddugh is "inspired by" the fede ring is correct, but Jones goes further and says it is a type of fede ring.

According to Jones,[3], the Claddugh (Jones' original spelling) originated as part of Claddagh's betrothal traditions; Jones says the natives of Claddugh [sic] are "particularly exclusive in their tastes and habits."

Jones explains:

The clasped hands [style ring]... are... in constant use in [the]... community [of] Claddugh [sic] at [County] Galway.... [They] rarely [intermarry] with others than their own people [sic]. The [Claddagh] wedding-ring [sic] is an heirloom in the family... transferred from the mother to the daughter who is first [to be] married, and so passes to her descendants. Many of these [rings]... are very old.

An 1843 description of this kind of ring provided the description later given by Jones, though Jones attests to his having seen the custom in practice.

Ireland, its Scenery, Character etc. by Mr and Mrs Samuel Carter Hall has a section about the Claddagh fishing community and their wedding rings. In a footnote the Halls mention a "strong analogy" with older gimmal rings, despite the "rudeness of their [the Galway rings'] construction" .

The wedding ring is a heir-loom in a family. It is regularly transferred by the mother to her daughter first married; and so on to their descendants. These rings are large, of solid gold, and not unfrequently cost from two to three pounds each. The one we have here copied had evidently seen much service. Some of them are plainer; but the greater number are thus formed.

In 1996 the Halls' information was queried by Ida Delamer, an expert on antique Irish silver. [4] [5]

She is sceptical about the Halls' account, and implies it has been romanticised. Her reasons include:

  • The authors were misled by folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker, now considered unreliable.
  • "... with a few exceptions, all extant gold Claddagh rings made prior to 1840 are male rings"
  • Most inhabitants of the Claddagh could not have afforded solid gold.

Delamer refers to a 1906 account by Galway jeweller, William Dillon, which says the "Claddagh" style of wedding ring was also worn in the Aran Isles, Connemara, and beyond. She traces the increasing popularity and commercialisation of the ring during the second half of the 19th century. Her article concludes that it is not established that the "Claddagh" design originated in the Claddagh. Jones, however, might beg to differ. The truth is we may never know; Irish wedding ring customs and the Claddagh are too intertwined. Even Jones (and later Kunz) found this to be true.

The Claddagh was a more or less marginal custom until recently. Kunz [6], while showing a photo of a typical gold Claddagh ring which he also spells "Claddugh", merely references an old Irish tradition of the bridegroom renting a gold ring in the event he couldn't afford to buy one. Kunz makes no mention of the "Claddugh" ring in his text.

McCarthy [7] merely repeats Kunz, making no reference at all to the Claddagh ring, or anything similar in the Irish tradition section of his "Betrothal Ring" chapter. McCarthy reminds us that men did not wear wedding rings commonly until World War II, though there was common tradition for men in Victorian times; this tradition for men vanished in Edwardian times, and the ring tradition of women was essentially ignored from Kunz well beyond McCarthy.

It has in recent years become demonstrative of pride in Irish heritage, though none of the above ring experts makes any mention of Claddugh wearing-customs (vid. Jones). Naturally there are many legends about the origins of the ring, particularly those connected with the Joyce Family of Connacht, Galway.

The Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849) brought thousands of Irish to America, and from thence the Claddagh ring may have spread as a tradition--we do not know. Today the design is worn worldwide, and has a certain Irish heritage meaning attached to it, though McCarthy makes no mention of any of this. Neither do Jones or Kunz.

A "Fenian" Claddagh, without the crown, was later designed in Dublin for the Irish Republican community, but that is not an indication that the crown in the original design was intended as a symbol of fidelity to the British crown. The Fenian Claddagh, while still in use, does not share the popularity of the ancient design. In any event, it seems likely that the crown of the Claddugh was intended to represent the ancient kings of Ireland[8].

Modern usage and the Claddagh in Folklore and Fiction

Claddaghs continue to be worn, primarily by those of Irish heritage, as both a cultural symbol and as engagement and wedding rings.[1] At their Celtic Pagan handfasting, Irish/Scottish American[9] musician Jim Morrison of The Doors and Irish American author Patricia Kennealy-Morrison exchanged claddagh rings.[10] A picture of the rings was included on the cover of Kennealy-Morrison's memoir, Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison, and the claddaghs can be seen in most of her author photos as well.[10]

Claddagh rings have made periodic appearances in movies and television, often as a plot device to indicate the ethnic origins or relationship status of a character, to illustrate wedding scenes, or to subtly indicate that the relationship of two characters has changed. In a scene loosely based on the above wedding ceremony, Val Kilmer and Kathleen Quinlan, as fictional versions of Morrison and Kennealy-Morrison, are seen exchanging Claddagh rings in Oliver Stone's movie, The Doors.[10].

Jill Masterton from the James Bond Novel Goldfinger wore a gold claddagh ring.

Sometimes authors of fiction and fantasy works have given the ring a somewhat altered or fanciful symbolism to better suit their purposes, such as writer/director Joss Whedon's use of the ring as a recurring plot device in the television series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Murphy, Colin, and Donal O'Dea (2006) The Feckin' Book of Everything Irish. New York, Barnes & Noble. p.126 ISBN 0-7607-8219-9
  2. ^ a b The Story of the Claddagh Ring from Pot O'Gold online. Accessed 18 Oct 2009
  3. ^ Finger-ring Lore, by Sir William Jones, Chatto & Windus, 1890.
  4. ^ Ida Delamer, The Claddagh Ring, Irish Arts Review (Vol. 12, (1996), pp. 181-187 ),http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492901
  5. ^ A freely available but inaccurate copy of Delamer's article, The Claddagh Ring (1996), without pictures,http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/history/chapter265.html
  6. ^ Rings for the Finger, by George Frederick Kunz, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1917.
  7. ^ Rings Through the Ages, by James Remington McCarthy, Harper & Brothers, 1945.
  8. ^ Jones, ibid.
  9. ^ http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1930:2450/1/Jim_Morrison.htm
  10. ^ a b c Kennealy, Patricia (1992). Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison. New York: Dutton/Penguin. ISBN 0-525-93419-7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help)
  11. ^ Stafford, Nikki (2002) Bite Me! An Unofficial Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Toronto, ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-540-5 p.213

References

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