Search Results for 'Fishing in Scotland'

TWENTY-ONE uniquely decorated currachs have journeyed from Inis Oírr to the NUI Galway campus - where they will be on display until next month - marking a new partnership between Áras Éanna and the university.

The Currach Races … An Tóstal … Rásaí na gCurrachaí … 60,000 people plus in Salthill … lines of people four and five deep along the Prom … Every vantage point taken … specially designed currachs everywhere, up on trailers, sitting on grass verges, at the water’s edge … Always a crowd of people inspecting them … The currachs on the sea like tiny insects, indistinguishable in the mist and drizzle … Mountainy men and island men … báinín … Bréidín … beautiful handknit Aran croiseanna … Caps … caps … thousands of caps … women in many different styles of shawl … some red petticoats … stalls everywhere selling minerals, sweets, fruit … many stages erected along the Prom hosting sean nós singers, dancers, traditional musicians … The atmosphere of a massive aeríocht … Programmes written in the old Irish script … strange accents from Donegal … Three-card trick men … canoe races between the currach races … Trawlers marking the race route … Kerry accents … canúint Chonamara … A cluster of bookies at Blackrock … Bottles of stout and lemonade … Gaelinn spoken in lilting Cork accents … Gaeilge spoken by Aran Islanders who had come in on the Dún Aengus … A marquee for food at Blackrock … another for visiting crews … The Joyces of Inis Bearacháin … Bands playing at the Ladies Beach and at Blackrock … Currach men from Mayo, Sligo, and Clare … Commentary on the races blaring from speakers all over Salthill … A festival dance in the Hangar. This was the All-Ireland Currach Racing Championship which was first held in 1953 in the Claddagh and thereafter for several years in Salthill. The Prom provided the ideal viewing stand, the oarsmen provided the excitement, and the crowds provided the atmosphere.

The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) - Country Life - is inviting people in Mayo with memories of boats and boat building in their community, to submit their stories to an online archive of Irish heritage.

Almost the entire population of Inisbofin, along with many visitors, gathered at the island’s Old Pier on Monday to witness an historic moment as an old-style currach was launched from the slipway for the first time in decades.

In the early 1950s a group of people got together to come up with ideas for extending the tourist season. They decided to focus on traditional Irish cultural events throughout the country, often with a local flavour, and they called the project An Tóstal. A committee was set up in Galway and they came up with the concept of an All-Ireland Currach Racing Championships. Nothing like this had ever been done before, so it took quite a bit of organisation.

I was invited to a fundraising dinner in a friend’s house recently and, not knowing quite what to expect, was amazed to see how someone’s house could be transformed into a lovely dining environment. I believe that it could be a way for people to enjoy good food at much less than restaurant prices and a great way to meet people. My hypothesis is this — why are restaurants charging the prices they are? High rent, high rent, and high rent and this is why they need two and three sittings on a night. So what could be possible if you had no rent to pay? You could charge prices that lots of people who do not eat out would find very attractive. This could be done by a couple of people who can have a flair for cooking, have a spacious home, and like to entertain people.

The Galway City Museum has hired the help of expert boat builders Pat Ó Cualáin and Patrick Flaherty to construct a traditional Connemara style currach over a three-day period.

Local competitors were to the fore in the All Ireland currach racing finals regatta which took place at Baurisheen Bay on Lough Corrib, Oughterard at the weekend.