The Claddagh ring (Irish: fáinne Chladaigh)
is a traditional Irish ring given which represents love, loyalty, and
friendship (the hands represent friendship, the heart represents love,
and the crown represents loyalty).
The design and customs associated with it originated in the Irish fishing village of Claddagh, located just outside the old city walls of Galway, now part of Galway City. The ring, as currently known, was first produced in the 17th century.
The Claddagh ring belongs to a group of European finger rings called "fede rings". The name "fede" derives from the Italian phrase mani in fede
("hands [joined] in faith" or "hands [joined] in loyalty"). These rings
date from Roman times, when the gesture of clasped hands was a symbol
of pledging vows, and they were used as engagement/wedding rings in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Fede rings are distinctive in that the bezel is cut or cast to form two clasped hands that symbolize faith and trust or "plighted troth". The Claddagh ring is a variation on the fede ring, while the hands, heart, and crown motif was used in England in the early 18th century.
Towards the end of the 20th century there was an explosion of
interest in the Claddagh Ring, both as jewelry and as an icon of Irish
identity. In recent years it has been embellished with interlace designs
and combined with other Celtic and Irish symbols, but this is a very
recent phenomenon that corresponds with the worldwide expansion in
popularity of the Claddagh ring as an emblem of Irish identity.
Galway has produced Claddagh rings continuously since at least 1700, but the name "Claddagh ring" was not used before the 1830s.
As an example of a maker, Bartholomew Fallon was a 17th-century Irish goldsmith,
based in Galway, who made Claddagh rings until circa 1700. His name
first appears in the will of one Dominick Martin, also a jeweller, dated
26 January 1676, in which Martin willed Fallon some of his tools.
Fallon continued working as a goldsmith until 1700. His are among the
oldest surviving examples of the Claddagh ring, in many cases bearing
his signature.
There are many legends about the origins of the ring, particularly concerning Richard Joyce, a silversmith from Galway circa 1700, who is said to have invented the Claddagh design as we know it.
Legend has it that Joyce was captured and enslaved by Algerian Corsairs
around 1675 while on a passage to the West Indies; he was sold into
slavery to a Moorish goldsmith who taught him the craft.
King William III sent an ambassador to Algeria to demand the release of
any and all British subjects who were enslaved in that country, which
at the time would have included Richard Joyce. After fourteen years,
Joyce was released and returned to Galway and brought along with him the
ring he had fashioned while in captivity: what we've come to know as
the Claddagh. He gave the ring to his sweetheart, married, and became a
goldsmith with "considerable success". His initials are in one of the earliest surviving Claddagh rings but there are three other rings also made around that time, bearing the mark of goldsmith Thomas Meade.
The Victorian antiquarian Sir William Jones described the Claddagh, and gives Chambers' Book of Days as the source, in his book Finger Ring Lore. Jones says:
The clasped hands [style ring]... are... still the fashion, and in constant use in [the]... community [of] Claddugh [sic] at [County] Galway.... [They] rarely [intermarry] with others than their own people.
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| A gold Claddagh ring without a stone. |
An account written in 1906 by William Dillon, a Galway jeweller, claimed that the "Claddagh" ring was worn in the Aran Isles, Connemara and beyond. Knowledge of the ring and its customs spread within the British Isles during the Victorian period, and this is when its name became established. Galway jewellers began to market it beyond the local area in the 19th century. Further recognition came in the 20th century.
In his 1911 book Rings for the Finger, American mineralogist George Frederick Kunz
addresses the importance of gold wedding rings in Ireland but does not
mention the Claddagh ring. He does, however, include a photo of one,
captioned with its correct name. Furthermore, it is unclear exactly how or when the ring was brought to the United States. In Rings Throughout the Ages (1945), James Remington McCarthy barely addresses the subject of Irish rings at all.
The Claddagh's distinctive design features two hands clasping a heart and usually surmounted by a crown. These elements symbolize the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown). A "Fenian"
Claddagh ring, without a crown, is a slightly different take on the
design but has not achieved the level of popularity of the crowned
version. Claddagh rings are relatively popular among the Irish and those of Irish heritage, such as Irish Americans, as cultural symbols and as friendship, engagement and wedding rings.
While Claddagh rings are sometimes used as friendship rings, they are
most commonly used as engagement and wedding rings. Mothers sometimes
give these rings to daughters when they come of age. There are several
mottos and wishes associated with the ring, such as: "Let love and
friendship reign."
In Ireland, the United States, Canada, and other parts of the Irish
diaspora, the Claddagh is sometimes handed down mother-to-eldest
daughter or grandmother-to-granddaughter.
According to Irish author Colin Murphy, a Claddagh ring was worn with
the intention of conveying the wearer's relationship status:
- On the right hand with the point of the heart toward the fingertips: the wearer is single and may be looking for love.
- On the right hand with the point of the heart toward the wrist: the wearer is in a relationship.
- On the left hand with the point of the heart toward the fingertips: the wearer is engaged.
- On the left hand with the point of the heart toward the wrist: the wearer is married.
There are other localized variations and oral traditions, involving
the hand and the finger on which the Claddagh is worn. Folklore about
the ring is relatively recent, not ancient, with "very little native
Irish writing about the ring". Hence, the difficulty today in finding
any source that describes or explains the traditional ways of wearing
the ring.
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