There are tons of stories about the Claddagh ring. The name "Claddagh" refers to a small fishing village where the ring supposedly originated. The ring's design is a heart encircled by a pair of delicate hands with a crown above the heart. In the past, this design was the symbol of the "Fishing Kings of Claddagh", meaning, "in love and friendship let us reign".
The symbol first appeared on a ring in the 17th century and became the fashionable exchange of friends or lovers. In marriage the heart was worn toward the wrist, otherwise toward the fingertips. Here are some folk legends about the Claddagh:
(a) Way back in time there was a king who was madly in love with a peasant woman. She, however, was of a lower class, so the love had to go unrequited. In despair, the king killed himself and had his hands lopped off and placed around his heart as a symbol of his undying love for the woman.
(b) It symbolizes love (heart), friendship/faith (hands) and loyalty (crown). Two hands joined together in love and crowned by the Glory of Christ.
(c) A Dublin version of this ring appeared some 100 years back with two hands and two hearts but no crown. Some call this version the Fenian Claddagh.
(d) The crown to The Father, the left hand to the Son, and the right hand the the Holy Ghost. This explanation is directly correlative to the shamrock, one of the earliest symbols of the Holy Trinity among the Irish.
(e) Some will say Beathauile is the Crown, Anu is the left hand, and the Dagda Mor is the right hand and the heart is the hearts of all mankind and that which gives the everlasting music to the Gael.
(f) As legend has it, the town developed the ring (originally to be painted on ships and sails) to be worn by sailors of Claddagh. When these sailors would run into other fishermen in their waters, they would check for the sigil, and if they did not find it, they would kill them.
(g) The original Claddagh ring is generally attributed to Richard Joyce, a native of Galway, who while being transported as a slave to the plantations of the West Indies was captured by Mediterranean pirates and sold to a Moorish goldsmith who trained him in his craft. In 1689, he was released and returned to Galway and set up his shop in the Claddagh. (The Claddagh is said to be the oldest fishing village in Ireland). By tradition the ring is taken to signify the wish that love and friendship should reign supreme. The hands signify friendship, the crown loyalty, and the heart love. The ring has become popular outside Connamera since the middle of the last century ~- its spread being helped by the vast exodus from the West during the great Famine in 1847-49. These rings were kept as heirlooms with great pride and passed from mother to daughter. Today, the ring is worn extensively across Ireland, either on the right hand with the heart turned outwards showing that the wearer is "fancy free" or with the heart turned inward to denote that he or she is "spoken for". The place of pride is on the left hand, with the heart turned in, indicating that the wearer is happily married.
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