The village of the Claddagh was a unique collection of thatched houses arranged in a very random fashion, occupied by a few thousand souls. They had their own customs, spoke mainly in Irish, intermarried each other, had their own code of laws, and elected their own king. He was quite powerful in many respects and usually solved local disputes. Claddagh people rarely went outside the village to courts of justice. Virtually the entire male population was involved in fishing, but when they landed their catch, it was the women who took over. They were the members of the family who went out and sold the product.
Many of them had their own private customers, their own beat as they would go from door to door selling. Others gathered in the Fishmarket, indeed this market was monopolized by Claddagh women. The original gathering place was in Bridge Street complete with a crane for weighing the fish, but conditions there were primitive. In 1833, Maria Edgeworth, the novelist, described them as follows: “At every turn it was disagreeable to have ‘FISH’ bawled in one’s face. The Fishmarket was fresh supplied and Galway is famous for its John Dorys. 'A John Dory Maa’m for eighteen pence', a shilling and sixpence! A John Dory could not be had for guineas in London. Quin, the famous actor, wished he was all throat when he was eating a John Dory but still, it was not pleasant to have ever so many John Dorys flapped in one’s face.”
For a long time, there was only one bridge across the river, the West Bridge, now known as O'Brien's Bridge. This meant a long roundabout walk to the Fishmarket for the Claddagh women who had to haul their heavy loads of fish in various skibs or creels or cishes. They regularly complained and, as the market was as important to the town as it was to these women, their complaints were eventually listened to and a wooden bridge was built across the river where the Wolfe Tone Bridge is today. It was quite dangerous but it had the effect of making the area we know today as The Fishmarket more convenient and accessible to these fisherwomen and they quickly made it their own.
That bridge was replaced in 1887 by the metal one in our photograph. It was more sturdy and much safer. It in turn was replaced by the current bridge in the 1930s.
The market was weather dependent and never took place in very wet or windy conditions, but when it did it was usually very lively, busy, and colourful, with a lot of competing female eloquence and, of course, haggling. In addition to the offers of John Dory, you would probably hear calls of "fresh fish, fresh herrings, lovely mackerel," etc. Our photograph, which was taken in 1901, shows a typical market. There is an interesting mixture of clothing and headgear, a fascinating moving tapestry of blue cloaks, red petticoats, práiscíns, cáibíns, báiníns, scibs, creels, ciseanna, baskets of many shapes, barrels, and multicoloured shawls. There are no men in our image but if there were, they would variously have been wearing top hats, bowlers, and the wide brimmed soft hats depending on where they came from. The boys all wear caps and are barefoot. Notice the variety of baskets in the foreground. It may look romantic, but remember, for those fisherwomen, selling their fish was paramount, they needed to sell to support their families. A lot of carraigeen was sold here too, it was used to thicken soups and stews and often sold as a cough mixture.
Some of the women are seated on the edge of 'the concrate', an area especially covered in concrete for use by the fish sellers. It was probably easy to clean and was regularly used by local boys as a football pitch. In the background, you can see the beginnings of the Claddagh, part of Raven Terrace with the Fishery Tower on the right.
Listen to Tom Kenny and Ronnie O'Gorman elaborating on topics they have covered in this week's paper and much more in this week's Old Galway Diary Podcast.
