City of Galway Deputy Mayor, Councillor Níall McNelis, who runs Claddagh & Celtic jewellers on Quay Lane, wants the Claddagh symbol of heart, hands and crown legally protected.
He is calling for Galway’s iconic Claddagh symbol to be registered under the EU’s new scheme for protected geographical indication (PGI ) of craft and industrial products, after a surge of online videos went viral, showing people how to make so-called ‘Fenian rings’ by sawing the crown off.
“The crown on the Claddagh depicts loyalty, not royalty, and this symbol associated with Galway for centuries has its roots in links between the cultures of northern and southern Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa,” says McNelis. “With all the horrors of what’s happening in Gaza and elsewhere, this is an opportunity to protect a symbol associated with the west of Ireland and the Irish, and the Claddagh themes of friendship, loyalty and love - not division.”
On social media, an online debate has developed where proponents of removing the crown claim they are “decolonising the Claddagh” based on the thinking of Irish-American leaders who inspired the failed 1867 Fenian Risings in Dublin and Munster.
Historians, however, point to the Claddagh ring’s ancient Mediterranean antecedent, the double-handed fede ring of Rome, which could even have originated in Persia - modern Iran.
Some propose that Richard Joyce saw fedes when he worked as an indentured servant to an Algerian goldsmith, before returning to Galway in the early eighteenth century, and setting up a successful jewellers. Examples of his Claddagh rings survive.
The new PGI system for craft goods, introduced in December, complements the existing protection for agricultural and food products, such as Connemara Hill Lamb, Achill sea salt, Irish whiskey, grass-fed beef, and the Waterford blaa.
“Champagne must come from Champagne, Parma ham from Parma, otherwise it’s just sparkling wine and sliced pork. I want the Claddagh ring to have that same protection in relation to Galway,” says McNelis.
The process for protection involves certifying a craft product nationally, then registration with the Europan Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO ).
McNelis says he has began contacting jewellers in Galway city to get behind the proposal, and is communicating with an Irish MEP to sponsor certification in EUIPO’s headquarters in Alicante, Spain.
Last week, weavers in the northwest called for similar EU protection status for Donegal Tweed to combat cheaper imitations from Asia.
