Currach na Sceirí - Seachtain na Gaeilge
A couple of lads in Skerries came together more than six years ago under the guidance of Shane Holland, and made their first curragh. In this video they chat about that experience, the transcript of which can be found below.
We are here in Skerries with Skerries Currachs and we made the first boat in 2018. And after that we were rowing around the islands here and we were also cleaning the islands. We collect rubbish and plastic and stuff like that. We are also making boats here in Skerries and there are a few boats here now and after making boats we bought a couple of boats from Cork and Galway and County Clare and there are six boats here now.
A couple of lads came together about six years ago under the guidance of Shane Holland and made the first curragh here. After that we bought a couple of currachs and made a few more. At the moment we have six currachs and there is a group of about 10 or 12 people in the group. I'm from Connemara, there are two lads from Mayo, we’ve a lad from Belfast, Dublin even from Berlin and a girl from Romania in our group.
We go around the country to competitions and exhibitions with the boats and we recommend that with every boat we make, it follows the tradition and style of that boat from the west coast.
We have a curragh from Dun Fanaghy from County Donegal, there is a curragh in the style of County Clare. We bought one in Cork and it's kind of a naomhóg. This one behind me got that currach from County Cork. It was made by a man named David Nolan and was involved in a few films Game of Thrones and King Arthur. This currach is very famous.
We are preparing this currach for the St. Patrick's Day parade. I hope it's ready as it takes a lot of time and work to properly make and finish and have small things right. This curragh is from Béal Derrig in County Mayo and there are now only about three remaining in the world, one in Béal Derrig, one in the National museum and this is the other.
It is important that people try to maintain and follow that tradition. We go out to the islands collecting rubbish and leave it next to the toilets here and it is collected by Fingal County Council whenever it is there, so we are working in cooperation with Fingal County Council to clean up the islands.
Link to Video: https://youtu.be/EDwJ7UGMFlU
