Irish galley

The Irish galley was a vessel in use in the West of Ireland down to the seventeenth century, and was propelled both by oars and sail. In fundamental respects it resembled the Scottish galley or bìrlinn, their mutual ancestor being the Viking longship. Both the Irish and Scottish versions were colloquially known as "longa fada" (longships). The Irish galley was commonly an eight or twelve-oared vessel and was used for both warfare and trade. It was notable for its speed when rowed.

Conventional galleys were being built in a number of Irish ports in the fourteenth century, and were even commissioned by the Crown. The use of such oared vessels in Northern Europe, in contrast to the Mediterranean, had greatly declined by the sixteenth century; their survival in the west of Ireland, as in the Scottish Isles, was facilitated by very local conditions, among them the ready availability of bays and islands.

No archeological remains have been found which would enable a detailed reconstruction of the Irish galley. There are, however, illustrations on Irish maps of the Elizabethan period (though of contested reliability), and these are supplemented by written accounts. There is also a carving in the old Cistercian monastery on Clare Island (Oileán Chliara), home of the seafaring O'Malleys. The carving, though very simple, shows a vessel remarkably similar to images of its Scottish equivalent, being an oared, single-masted ship with a yard for a single square sail.

Cartographic images of the later sixteenth century, however, show interesting differences from the vessel shown in the carving. This may reflect foreign influences, since Irish galleys traded to Spain and Portugal. An image from a 1657 map of Ireland shows an oared vessel with a round stern and a raked stem. There is a raised deck over the latter, and a cabin with a curved roof considerably aft of the mast. The mast is placed forward and carries a single sail, possible a lug sail. There are stays visible and lifts with a block.

Images on a map of Ulster by Francis Jobson show three Irish galleys, each with eight oars and a vertically striped square sail. Rudders are visible, along with stays, braces and crow's-nests. The forestay descends to a beak, with a round-roofed cabin aft.

There is pictorial evidence that by the end of the sixteenth century similar influences may have affected the design of the Scottish galley. A carving made at Arasaig in 1641 shows a vessel with a lowered stem and stern. An English map of north-east Ireland made no later than 1603 shows "fleetes of the Redshanks [Highlanders] of Cantyre" carrying what resembles a lugsail on a sloping yard arm, with a small cabin at the stern projecting backwards. Two Clanranald seals attached to documents dated 1572 show a birlinn with raised decks at stem and stern, a motif repeated in later heraldic devices. If such changes occurred, they would reflect (as in Ireland) influences from the south-east and ultimately from the Mediterranean.

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