Even just a brief stroll down the iconic Long Walk in Galway City will introduce you to the white swans sprinkled throughout the banks of the river. With their majestic long necks and mysterious faces, the Claddagh swans have complimented Galway for hundreds of years. But how did they get here?
A young boy picks up a stone, his eyes set on the prize: a graceful white swan, neck diving into the river Corrib. He winds his arm back ready to throw, no thought behind the violent provocation. Suddenly, he feels a strong hand urgently fall on his shoulder, stopping the movement. An old fisherman, his face marked with the hatches and valleys of age, looked down on the boy, an expression of deep concern growing on his face. “Do you know who those birds are?” he asked. The boy said nothing at all. “Well I’ll tell you. They are the souls of your ancestors. Yours and mine.” he said poignantly. “When the old fishermen die, their souls leave their bodies, take the forms of swans and return to the basin to watch over the boats.”
above: Illustration by Sadie Cramer
In the early 1900s, the story goes that a Claddagh village fisherman once told Father LeoWard of Notre Dame University that the swans were new settlers to the River Corrib, saying: "they came here only a few years ago, there was just a pair at first, this and now they are very numerous.”
Their peculiar origin story is only scratching the surface of the fascinating myths behind the Claddagh swans.
It was a longheld belief that the swans harboured the souls of the ancestors of the people in the village. Thus, the swans became sacred creatures to the Claddagh villagers. This led to the development of certain superstitions concerning how people interacted with the swans. The Claddagh fisherman went on to warn: "They say it is not luck to kill wan of them."
It was even said that killing a swan meant certain death within the year.
To the Claddagh villagers, killing a swan represented the ultimate crime and act of disrespect towards their ancestors. So, out of fear of their wrath and out of reverence for those who came before them, the villagers held the swans in high esteem and vowed to never harm them.
Another fascinating aspect of the sacred Claddagh swans stems from their names themselves. The swans are commonly referred to as ‘mute swans,’ while, in reality, they are far from it.
The lore goes that when a swan was nearing the end of its life and preparing to die, they would softly sing a sweet song to serve as a final performance to honour its transition from life to death. Thus, the term ‘swansong’ came to be.
above: photo by Chaosheng Zhang
Swans make appearances in almost every ancient mythology from Denmark, to Greece, to, of course, Ireland. In medieval Irish mythology, the ‘Children of Lir’ is the tragic story about four siblings transformed into swans by their jealous stepmother, Aoife. They were cursed to live as swans for 900 years total: 300 years on a lake, 300 years on the sea, and 300 years on an island. They were only freed from the curse once Christianity arrived in Ireland.
From the beginning of Ireland’s history and legend, swans have been viewed as vessels for human souls in some capacity or another. They continue to carve through the river gracefully and have maintained a mysterious presence for centuries, supplementing the idea that there is something unknown about them, that there’s something, or perhaps even someone, that they could be hiding.
If you're interested to discover more of Galway's myths and legends, Galway City Museum's The Corrib: Myth, Legend and Folklore exhibition and walking trail explores the local history, legends and folktales of the Corrib. With stories spanning from 'The Red Fox and St MacDara' and 'Mermaids and Human Seals' to 'The Black Dog and the Devil's Steps', Ireland's rich storytelling tradition truly comes alive in this fascinating exhibit. Check it out online here.
Main image by Chaosheng Zhang.
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