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From Cecil's Mailbag by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Dear Straight Dope:
My wife gave me an Irish claddagh ring as a gift. These rings show
two hands clasping a crowned heart. There is supposed to be a
tradition as to which way the crown is to point--one way if you're
single, another way if you're taken. We have not been able to find
out which direction is correct for either circumstance. With your
infinite wisdom and resources, maybe you can help us. --Michael W.
White, Edison, New Jersey
SDSTAFFMELIS replies:
Well, I may not be Cecil, but I think I can help.
I learned from a couple places that make claddagh rings that when
you just want to wear the ring, but aren't attached, it should be
on your right hand, with the heart facing outwards (pointing to
your fingertip). If you want to wear it as a friendship/engagement
ring, then wear it on the same hand but with the heart inwards
(just turn the thing around). For a wedding ring, or as the quote
goes, "showing two hearts that have joined forever," wear it on the
left hand, heart facing inwards.
STSTAFFDogster concurred, saying that he's dated a lot of Irish
women, and that was how they wore their claddagh rings.
And now for the interesting stuff--how the claddagh ring got its
name, and what each symbol means. The legend goes that over 300
years ago, in the fishing village of Claddagh (off the west coast
of Ireland), a man named Richard Joyce was captured by pirates and
sold as a slave to a Turkish goldsmith. After a time Joyce earned
his freedom. Having learned a bit of the goldsmith trade, he
returned to Claddagh and created the ring. (Some versions of the
story add a lady who faithfully waited for her true love while he
was away, but since this was primarily told by vendors, I
discounted it as a way to sell more jewelry.)
Is the entire legend pure bunk? I asked SDSTAFFMcCaffertA, who
said: "For what it's worth, a lot of the legend holds together.
Joyce is the 'Smith' or 'Jones' of Galway. Being sold into slavery
in the Caribbean was a fairly common fate, and the earliest marked
rings do seem to be stamped RI. So this stuff might be true. On
the other hand, this is but one of a whole series of clasped-hands
rings, and the hand-and-heart motif seems to run
throughout the whole Celtic fringe: Brittany, Wales, Galicia, etc."
As for the symbols of the claddagh, the heart means love, the hands
holding the heart mean friendship, and the crown over the heart
means loyalty or fidelity.
This probably leaves one question in your mind: how do you
pronounce claddagh?
Beats me. I say "clad-daw," many people say "clad-ah," and Dogster
says people out in New Jersey say "clay-day." But McCaffertA seems
to have the best handle on things: "You now generally hear
"clad-ah," but both ring and town should be pronounced "clod-uh."
Gaelic never made the great vocalic shift."
I hope you enjoy the ring ... and that you wear it in good health
and true love.
SDSTAFFMELIS
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Cecil's Mailbag is researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.
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