“In Galway, most people have Claddagh rings, they hand them down, mother to daughter, father to son,” Mr. Margetts said, noting that they call the design a “heart and hands ring.”And many have brought old rings to him for repair. “Many of them have impurities in the metal so I’ve had to develop a technique to work on them,” he said. On DisplayThe earliest known Claddagh ring, created by Mr. Joyce in the 1700s, went on display last month in the Galway City Museum. Mr. O’Neill pointed out the maker’s initials “RI” (the I indicated the phonetic Latin pronunciation of Joyce, he said) and the initials LcM and MrC. “We don’t know who they were,” he said, “but this would probably have been a wedding ring for a very wealthy couple.”

Source: The North Africa Journal July 04, 2022 10:37 UTC