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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.