The Old Drogheda Society Annual Corcoran Garry Lecture this year will be on 'Traditional Boats on the Boyne', which will include the Stone Age Boyne Currach, or Coracle, and the Boyne Canoe. Put it in your diary for Wednesday October 8th at 8pm. You'll get to see some examples of these famous craft, which will be on display, and admission is free.
Please note the change of venue to the Droichead Arts Centre in Stockwell Street, Drogheda.
The cowhide-covered circular Boyne Currach (sometimes referred to as a 'coracle' – pictured left), a Stone-Age boat used for drift-net fishing on the river up until 1945, is justly famous all over the world. Another local traditional craft is the wooden Boyne Canoe, an elegant and simply-made vessel, used for hundreds of years in the area for salmon and mussel-fishing, and perhaps taken for granted locally since until recently it was still in daily use on the river.
These and other local boats – including earlier vessels from the archaeological record – will be celebrated in this seminar-style event, with main speaker Criostóir MacCárthaigh, Dept of Irish Folklore, UCD, editor of the monumental Traditional Boats of Ireland (2008) and with contributions from leading marine archaeologists, local boatmen and boat-makers and from mussel fishermen and their wives.
The Corcoran-Garry Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Old Drogheda Society in memory of founder-members and renowned historians, Moira Corcoran and Jim Garry.
