Naomhóg

A currach (Irish: curach, Irish pronunciation: [ˈkʊɾˠax]) is a type of Irish boat with a wooden frame, over which animal skins or hides were once stretched, though now canvas is more usual. It is sometimes anglicised as "Curragh". The construction and design of the currach are unique to the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, with variations in size and shape by region. It is referred to as a naomhóg (Irish pronunciation: [nˠəi'βˠo:gˠ]; lit. "little holy one", "little female saint", from naomh ([nˠe:βˠ]) "saint, holy" and the feminine diminutive suffix -óg) in counties Cork, Waterford and Kerry and as a "canoe" in West Clare. It is related to the Welsh coracle. The plank-built rowing boat found on the west coast of Connacht is also called a currach or curach adhmaid ("wooden currach"), and is built in a style very similar to its canvas-covered relative. A larger version of this is known simply as a bád iomartha (rowing boat).

The currach has traditionally been both a sea boat and a vessel for inland waters.

The currach represents one of two traditions of boat and shipbuilding in Ireland: the skin-covered vessel and the wooden vessel. The flimsy construction of the former makes it unlikely that any remains would be available for the marine archaeologist, but its antiquity is clear from written sources.

One of these is the Latin account of the voyage of St Brendan (who was born c. 484 in the southwest of Ireland): Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis. This contains an account of the building of an ocean-going boat: using iron tools, the monks made a thin-sided and wooden-ribbed vessel sicut mos est in illis partibus (“as the custom is in those parts”), covering it with hides cured with oak bark. Tar was used to seal the places where the skins joined. A mast was then erected in the middle of the vessel and a sail supplied. Though the voyage itself is essentially a wonder-tale, it is implied that the vessel as described was built in accordance with ordinary practice at the time. An Irish martyrology of the same period says of the Isle of Aran that the boat commonly used there was made of wickerwork and covered with cowhide.

...
Wikipedia