Curragh

Even though the vessel Brendan would have sailed, a craft called a curragh and used by Irish fisher folk for centuries, was much smaller, the beautiful brig, with its billowing sails and creaking masts, was a symbol of St. Brendan's unlikely crossing. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Welsh and Irish rivers, and known as a curragh or coracle; made of an osier frame covered with tanned and oiled skins. ❋ Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1867)

Reconstructing a sixth-century ocean-going curragh required designing the boat itself, based on expertise in naval architecture and a single illustration in a medieval manuscript, then identifying and then sourcing the right kind of leather, the right kind of grease for preserving and waterproofing it, the right kind of flax thread for ropes and stitching, and the right kind of wood for the strong but flexible frame. ❋ Carla (2008)

The medieval text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis The Voyage of St Brendan the Abbot tells how St Brendan and a crew of 17 Irish monks built themselves a leather curragh and set sail west over the ocean in search of the Promised Land. ❋ Carla (2008)

(In the late 70s, the sailor/historian Tim Severin recreated the journey in a curragh he built with tools and materials that would have been available to Brendan.) ❋ Unknown (2008)

In her curragh of shells of daughter of pearl and her silverymonnblue mantle round her. ❋ Unknown (2006)

The curragh which was promised might be a man, a horse, a cart, or chaise; and no more could be got from the man with the battle-axe but a repetition of ‘Aich ay! ta curragh.’ ❋ Unknown (2004)

‘Ta cove was tree, four mile; but as duinhe-wassel was a wee taiglit, Donald could, tat is, might — would — should send ta curragh.’ ❋ Unknown (2004)

Britain; Scotland rang with thy exploits, and England, too, north of the Humber; strange deeds also didst thou achieve when, fleeing from justice, thou didst find thyself in the Sister Isle; busy wast thou there in town and on curragh, at fair and race-course, and also in the solitary place. ❋ Unknown (2004)

Enda seized his oar, and the curragh sped across the waters swifter than ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

As he stepped into the curragh the moon was rising above the mountains. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

All that night he lay awake, thinking of what he had seen, and as soon as the morning stood on the hill-tops, and cast its shafts of golden light across the lake, Enda rose and got into his curragh. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

And as the first faint glimmer of the morning came slanting down the mountains, he stepped into his curragh and pulled across the lake, and took the road towards the water-palace of Angus of the Boyne. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

He rowed his curragh home, and he lay on his bed without taking off his clothes. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

He rowed on until he came to the hut, and having moored the boat to the door, he put on the water-dress and the crystal helmet, and taking the spear in his hand, he leaped over the side of the curragh, and sank down and down until he touched the bottom. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

At last he saw a faint gray light, and soon this light grew broader and brighter, and as the shadows fled before it, he could hardly believe his eyes when he found himself in his curragh on the lake, and the moonlight streaming down from the mountain-tops. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

Enda jumped into the curragh, and soon the water, dripping from his oar, was flashing like diamonds in the moonlight. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

"Get into your curragh, Enda, and follow me," said she, and, saying this, she turned round and sailed away. ❋ Edmund Leamy (N/A)

there was [patch] after was [drowned] out of a curragh that [turned over] ❋ Kiega (2010)