The Galway Hooker, and particularly the Bád Mór, is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most iconic images. A new TG4 documentary, Ó Lámh an tSaoir, will explore the future of these traditional sailing boats.
Hookers, the workboats of Galway used for fishing and transporting everything from turf to people and livestock, have been built and maintained by generations of boatbuilders and many of them have remained in family ownership for over 120 years.
This documentary, due to be broadcast on Easter Monday, follows the unprecedented challenges faced by both boat owners and builders during the most difficult period yet for the Galway Hooker community since their revival in the late 1970s.
Maintenance costs are a part of life for the owners of these wooden boats, but the availability of suitable and affordable timber is currently having a disastrous effect on the repair and restoration of these unique boats.
Sourcing suitable timber in Ireland has become next to impossible and the importation of timber has become so expensive that the delays involved now means that the majority of the Bád Mór fleet is on dry land instead of at sea racing in the various annual summer regattas. The programme will hear from boat owners, struggling with these difficulties as they strive to continue and protect the family heritage in hope of passing their Galway Hooker onto the next generation.
In addition, there is a question over the future of the local boatbuilding craft. While many of the current crop of boatbuilders came through an Údarás na Gaeltachta initiative in the late 1990s, hardly any have entered the trade since then. This shortage and lack of young boatbuilders now, unfortunately, threatens the very future of the Galway Hooker.
Lámh an tSaoir will be broadcast on TG4 this Easter Monday, April 21, at 8.30pm.
