6-27 Scavenger Hunt, Galway
6-27 Scavenger Hunt in Galway--RJ Miller, Michael DeAngelo, Quill Seilhan, Donavan Piccicuto
On Thursday we did a scavenger hunt to get acclimated to Galway. The first Item on the scavenger hunt was to find a Claddagh ring. A Claddagh ring is a traditional kind of Irish ring. The heart represents love, the crown represents loyalty, and the hands represent friendship. There are many legends of the origins of the ring. One legend is that Richard Joyce invented the ring after being enslaved by a Moorish goldsmith, and then gave it to his wife as a wedding ring. Depending on the way you wear the ring, it signifies your relationship status.
One of the items on the scavenger hunt was a grouping of banners with surnames and their own specific family crests at Eyre Square in Galway, specifically to find out what they were and what was the history. After asking a local about them, she told us that they were the names of the 14 Tribes of Galway. The Tribes of Galway were 14 wealthy merchant families, their names were Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, D’Arcy, Deane, Ffont, Ffrench, Joyes, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris, and Skerret. They played a vital religious and economic role in Galway and were later punished for it during the Cromwellian siege. The banners mark their involvement.
Another thing we had to do was find a pub that had an Irish name. It was difficult because you sometimes couldn’t tell if it was an Irish name or if it was an English name that you couldn’t read because of dyslexia. Luckily, someone in my group could tell which was which and we were able to check that one off. The pub was called Cave Bodega, which we later discovered was a Spanish name, so in its place we found Taaffe's Bar.
If it is difficult to properly exhume mental images of the Galway Hooker statue which match the title's vividness, that cannot be fairly inculpated on the statue itself. The way the intricate geometric patterns fused together into a cohesive pattern greater than the sum of its parts will inherently fascinate even cynical eyes. The Galway Hooker provides completely different and compelling images of itself depending on the angle it is viewed from--at times resembling a sailboat, an eagle preparing for flight, or even a human being holding a sharp-edged, impossibly heavy shield. Considering its imagery, one would expect the Galway Hooker to produce a far greater impression upon my mind. Unfortunately, it is buried thoroughly under the torrential downpour which stalked me to the statue and refused to spare me even after my pants and sweatshirt were nearly soaked. The rain would regularly conspire with the equally relentless wind to maximize its impact upon my flailing body. Occasionally, the rainstorm was so severe that I needed to hide my face under the fragile hood my sweatshirt offered. I could not bear looking up at the statue for long enough to snap one picture. That, I suppose, is Galway’s weather.
