The Claddagh Ring

Rings with two clasped hands were a common old wedding design, and Chambers found the fashion still in daily use among the fishing families of the Claddagh at Galway, a close community of five or six thousand who seldom married outside their own people. There the wedding ring was a family heirloom, passed from the mother to the first of her daughters to marry and so on down the line. Many of the rings were very old, with hands holding a crowned heart. The Claddagh ring is still made and given in Ireland today.