The Quilty Currach Building Course

Well, 3 Aran-style 3-hand currachs were built and launched on August 15th 2004 in Quilty following a 6 day course given by Padraig O'Duinnin from Meitheal Mara. The course was run in St. Joseph's Community School, Spanish Point, many thanks to Mary Crawford the school principal. So why the "Quilty Currachs" ? Well, 7 of the ten students on the course were from Quilty, the launch was in Quilty, the crabclaws came ashore at Quilty. And since we're at the questions, why the "currach" building course and not the "Canoe" building course ? Well, even though the traditional boats are called canoes from Quilty and southwards in County Clare, the boats we built were currachs, so...

Loads of pictures available of the currach building course. I've started organising them in a slideshow here. Here are two accounts of the course from John Joe Ryan and Sarah Wall

• Colm Garvey (Inagh / Toulouse) : course organiser
• Padraig O'Duineen (Meitheal Mara, Cork city) : Main instructor
• John O' Donovan (Meitheal Mara, Cork city) : Assistant instructor
• Mark Redden (Meitheal Mara, Cork city) : Assistant instructor
• John Joe Ryan (Quilty)
• Michael Galvin (Quilty)
• Martin Shanahan (Quilty)
• Sean Walsh (Kilmaley / Miltown Malbay)
• Kieran Shanahan (Miltown Malbay)
• Patrick Galvin (Quilty)
• Martin Murrihy (Miltown Malbay)
• Pat Ryan (Quilty)
• Donal O Beara (Miltown Malbay)

Here's what currach-builders look like