Today large coracles in Ireland are made from machine cut wood covered
with tarred cloth, a type from a long history that leads into the mists
of time. This description is of a sea-going design but it is not many
decades ago that that a river coracle was still to be found on some Irish
waterways. The usual term for these craft is Currach and with a few spelling
variations such as curragh or even canoe.
Across mainland Britain, Skin Boats (Coracles) have been traditionally
built mouth or right way up but in Ireland the reverse is evident where
all are built upside down. On the River Boyne, was the last use of such
a craft for Salmon fishing at the village of Oldbridge in 1948. Unfortunately
information is rare but there is a drawing dated 1848 of two currachs
at Stackallen near Slane County Meath, also there was oral evidence, collected
in the 1930s from elderly people with long memories.
On the River Foyle where it joined the Mourne at Strabane there were references
of currachs there in the 1880s. At about the same time a currach was used
as a ferry on Carlingford Lough between Omeath and Warren point. they
were also observed on the River Blackwater and recollections have been
recorded of having been used on the River Bann. An earlier record from
1602 records the crossing by a military force of the River Shannon.
Boyne currachs are made by pushing hazel rods into the ground in the shape
of the currach, then a wall of basket work creates the upside down gunwale
and then the rods are bent to give a look like a primitive hut and tied
at the crossing points with horsehair. A hide was the covering tied on
also with horsehair and with the addition of a canvas strip around the
rear gunwale to protect the net when fishing.
In recent years with the interest in cultural history, river currachs
are once again being built for a new generation with an interest in their
past.
Boyne Currach made by
Peter Faulkner
Circa 1900
In Ireland there is a link between river currachs and the larger sea going types that are rowed and are still in use today, it is the Donegal paddling currach, a type only found in Rosses area of Donegal. These unusual craft are sea going but are not rowed but paddled over the front, as a river currach (coracle) would be (locally known as "Pulled"). In the stern sits a second person helping to steer and although the paddle is the main method of propulsion recent examples from about the last forty years have thole pins fitted for oars to be used. Up to about ten years ago only four were in use but in the previous forty years there were as many as twenty-four for fishing, ferrying, tending lobster pots, cutting seaweed, and for leisure use. The gunwale is made from fir, the lathes from planned oak and the covering of two layers of calico or canvas with brown paper between over which is a covering of coal tar. These robust craft have the distinction of being able to carry a cow whose legs have been tied and is on its back. Although a large craft they are carried on the shoulders of one man the same way as a Llangollen (upper Dee) coracle is. The currach on display at the National coracle at Cenarth was made by Andy McGonagle of Kincasslagh in 1991.
