{"id":97620,"date":"2024-01-19T18:30:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T17:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/?p=97620"},"modified":"2024-01-19T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T15:54:38","slug":"irish-claddagh-rings-have-an-unexpected-history-it-involves-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/en\/irish-claddagh-rings-have-an-unexpected-history-it-involves-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Claddagh rings have an unexpected history\u2014it involves pirates."},"content":{"rendered":"
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You\u2019ve seen the iconic heirloom with two hands clasping a crowned heart. Do you know its history?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Claddagh ring design draws on the clasped hands of fede rings, which date back to Roman times. Joyce is credited with introducing a crown sometime in the 1690s.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Nearly 350 years ago, a teenage Richard Joyce waited for the ship that would carry him from Galway across the Atlantic Ocean. A son of a once wealthy merchant family, Joyce was being sent to the West Indies to start his new life as an indentured servant.<\/p>\n

Joyce would never make it to the Caribbean. A twist of fate would instead see him return home 14 years later, with the smithing skills to craft one of Ireland\u2019s most enduring symbols of love, loyalty, and friendship: the Claddagh ring.<\/p>\n

Named after the small fishing village opposite Galway city, the Claddagh ring depicts two hands clasping a crowned heart. Similar rings, known as \u201cfede\u201d or fidelity rings, had been worn throughout the Mediterranean since Roman times, but Joyce is credited with introducing a crown into the design sometime in the 1690s.<\/p>\n

The Celtic band is a common family heirloom, traditionally passed down from mother to daughter, who would give it to her husband-to-be. Over the centuries, famine, poverty, and war saw the Irish diaspora settle across the world. Migrants pawned their jewelry to pay for passage or brought their treasure to new lands.<\/p>\n

The Claddagh ring persists today as both an icon of affection and Irish ancestry. But what are its true origins? Historians untangle what we know about Joyce and the ring he\u2019s credited with creating.<\/p>\n

Pirates and corsairs in Europe<\/b><\/h2>\n

Two decades before Richard Joyce was born, a burgeoning uprising in Galway was put down by English forces and the city\u2019s 14 influential merchant families, including Joyce\u2019s, were forced to give up their land and businesses. It\u2019s likely Joyce was following in the footsteps of relatives by traveling to the Caribbean to start a new life.<\/p>\n

According to historian\u00a0James Hardiman<\/a>,<\/i> Joyce\u2019s ship was intercepted by Algerine corsairs shortly after setting sail from Galway in 1675. Fifteen-year-old Joyce was captured along with everyone else onboard\u2014a mix of other indentured servants, merchants, and crew\u2013and taken to a slave market in Algiers to be sold at auction. Corsairs were a real danger in the late 1600s. Ottoman territories like Algeria were almost wholly autonomous but lacked an official navy, relying on corsairs to protect their coasts.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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