Irish galley

[1] 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.

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.

Two maps of Ulster made by the Elizabethan cartographer Francis Jobson around 1590 show vessels similar to that described above, together with conventional English sailing ships.

It has been argued that for trading voyages, including those to the Iberian peninsula, the Irish would have used sturdy vessels of the caravel type, a view which finds support in the galleys shown.

Bartlett's map (referred to above) 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.

[9] 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.

It is reasonable to assume that galleys in both Western Scotland and the West of Ireland were built in accordance with well-established shipwrights' techniques of north-west Europe, of which the Norse were major exponents.

They were clinker-built, open-decked amidships, single-masted and oared, the major difference being that, unlike Norse ships of the classical period, they had a rudder attached to a steep transom.

[13] From the evidence available, it is likely that Irish galleys resembled their Scottish equivalents in their basic construction, rigging, steering and means of propulsion, though in both cases allowance must be made for advances in design (see previous section).

In 1413, for example, Tuathal Ó Máille, a member of the O'Malley family, was returning to Mayo from Ulster when his fleet of seven ships was overtaken by "anfadh na mara" (a sea tempest) and driven northwards to Scotland.

[14] The O'Malleys and the O'Flahertys, lords of west Connacht, were the main users of galleys, which they used for plundering or for transporting the troops of other chieftains.

They were certainly vulnerable to cannon fire (their light construction meant they could carry no great guns themselves), though they could easily hold their own with English craft of a similar size.