ALONG THE CLADDAGH There were lovely ladies along the Claddagh All taking the air by each garden tree, All taking air in the quiet evening, And none so lovely as my lady. Then I stepped beside her most entertaining, Making fine talk on the rounded sea, "But ah," she said, "you I cannot marry, For a bold Spanish man said bravely to me: "Oh be my lady, and in Limerick laces Your delicate ways shall airly pass, With quiet feet in your blue pampooties And guinea hens on the daisied grass." -- F. R. Higgins: "The Spanish Man" The Claddagh is the district lying across the river from Spanish Arch. It was the old Irish town outside the Norman walls, and until recent times was a picturesque fishing village of thatched cottages and narrow alleyways. The Claddagh Ring remains in popular use. Richard Joyce, a Galway goldsmith who made a chalice which is in Westminster Cathedral, is credited with being the earliest Galway maker of this distinctive item. The design of two hands clasping a heart surmounted by a crown symbolizes trust or plighted troth. It is medieval or earlier in origin but it became closely associated with the Claddagh fishing village where it was used as both a bethrothal and wedding ring. On betrothal the ring was worn with the heart towards the nail and on marriage the crown was nearest the nail. King Henry VIII's Decree for Galway, 1536: "That every inhabitant within our said town endeavoured themselves to speak English, and to use themselves after the English fashion; and specially that you, and everyone of you do put forth your children to school to learn to speak English; and that you fail not to fulfil this our commandments, as you tender our favour, and will avoid our indignation and high displeasure." The Irish language survived, however, and in 1820, a Galway historian wrote: "In the West of Ireland it is a custom rather general amongst the lower orders that females who cannot speak English are not allowed to wear ribbons in their caps. Hence a stranger, on entering a fair or market town, may in general, by this mark, distinguish those women who can speak English from those who cannot. Amongst the Claddagh community this distinction seems to have been scrupulously adhered to." -- Excerpts, "Ireland of the Welcomes"