Search Results for 'Johnny Beatty'

John O’Dowd got the inaugural juvenile soccer league (for boys under-16) underway in Galway in 1931-2. The clubs competing included; Crusaders, Hotspurs, Reds United, Emmetts, Unknowns, Bective Rangers and Hibernians. The swamp was the only soccer pitch available in Galway at the time. The league was a big success and this prompted the organisers to run a minor league in the 1932-33 season.

The village of Claddagh was a unique collection of thatched cottages arranged in a very random fashion, a place apart, occupied by a few thousand souls. They had their own customs, spoke mainly in Irish, intermarried, elected their own king and had a code of laws unique to the village. Virtually the entire male population was involved in fishing, but when they landed their catch, the women took over and they were the ones who went out and sold the product.

It is a pity really that we cannot see this photograph in colour because what we are looking at must have been a wonderful colourful animated scene full of black shawls, patterned and coloured shawls, blue cloaks and red cloaks, white aprons, práiscíns, baskets, scibs, barrels, fisherwomen from The Claddagh, and customers from the town. Imagine the noisy competition between the sellers, the lively female eloquence, the haggling, “Fresh fish, Johnny Dory, lovely mackerel,” etc. It all sounds like great fun and very romantic, but of course it was vital for the Claddagh women who were trying to make a living, to make enough to support their families.