'Bádóirí–photographing the last of the Galway Hooker Men’ a documentary by sailor and photographer Joe St. Leger will air on RTE One television on Monday 23rd May 2016 at 7.30pm.
The film relates the story of these unique Irish workboats and the men who sailed them using black and white photographs taken over 35 years ago when St. Leger was starting out as a photographer with the Irish Press in Dublin
Using still images and film footage taken over thirty years ago photographer St Leger tells the story of photographing the last of the hooker boatmen of Connemara.
For centuries Galway hookers sailed the waters of Galway Bay transporting people, goods and animals and connecting remote coastal communities with the Aran Islands, Galway city and market towns like Kinvara.
Transport and fishing once provided work for hundreds of these boats and their crews but by the 1960s their working days were coming to an end and many old boats were abandoned.
In the 1980’s attempts were made to revive interest in the craft starting with the annual Crinniú na mBád or Gathering of the Boats in Kinvara and to preserve for for future generations the skills needed to build and to sail them.
This film uses photographs taken during the revival to document what remained of the Galway hookers and of the people and places associated with them.
