The Galway Hooker

Our City is synonyms with The Galway hooker, a traditional fishing boat designed to handle the rough seas off the Galway coast. Originally designed for fishing herring around Galway Bay, the Galway Hooker quickly became the freight trucks of the 19th century. They sailed between Connemara, Kinvara and the Aran Islands carrying and exchanging Turf, Livestock, Lime, Barley and Timber.

The Galway Hooker was still an important mode of turf transportation right up to the introduction of Electricity and Gas on the Islands and in Connemara in the 1950’s.

The boats are constructed from oak frames with a think beach keel and come in four classes, or sizes;

Bád Mór (Big Boat) – 35 to 44 feet in length.
Leathbhád (half boat) – 28 feet in length.

These two classes of Galway Hooker were mainly used in the transportation of Turf, for fuel, from Galway Bay and Connemara to the Aran Islands.

Gleoiteog (Neat Boat) – 24 feet in length.
Púcán (Fishing-Smack) – 24 feet in length.

The Gleoiteog and Púcán are similar in length but differ in how they were rigged and the types of sail they used.

When McDonaghs first opened and during the first fifty to sixty years of our business, The Galway Hooker would have been a common site on the bay as hundreds of these boats made up a complex transportation system that serviced Galway Bay, The Arran Islands and The Burren.