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A currach ((アイルランド語:curach), (:ˈkʊɾˠax)) is a type of Irish boat with a wooden frame, over which animal skins or hides were once stretched, though now canvas is more usual. It is sometimes anglicised as "Curragh". The construction and design of the currach are unique to the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, with variations in size and shape by region. It is referred to as a ''naomhóg'' ((:nˠəi'βˠo:gˠ); lit. "little holy one", "little female saint", from ''naomh'' ((:nˠe:βˠ)) "saint, holy" and the feminine diminutive suffix -óg) in counties Cork, Waterford and Kerry and as a "canoe" in West Clare. It is related to the Welsh coracle. The plank-built rowing boat found on the west coast of Connacht is also called a currach or ''curach adhmaid'' ("wooden currach"), and is built in a style very similar to its canvas-covered relative. A larger version of this is known simply as a ''bád iomartha'' (rowing boat). The currach has traditionally been both a sea boat and a vessel for inland waters. ==History== The currach represents one of two traditions of boat and shipbuilding in Ireland: the skin-covered vessel and the wooden vessel. The flimsy construction of the former makes it unlikely that any remains would be available for the marine archaeologist, but its antiquity is clear from written sources. One of these is the Latin account of the voyage of St Brendan (who was born c. 484 in the southwest of Ireland): ''Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis''. This contains an account of the building of an ocean-going boat: using iron tools, the monks made a thin-sided and wooden-ribbed vessel ''sicut mos est in illis partibus'' (“as the custom is in those parts”), covering it with hides cured with oak bark. Tar was used to seal the places where the skins joined. A mast was then erected in the middle of the vessel and a sail supplied.〔''Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis'', cap. IV: http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost10/Brendanus/bre_navi.html〕 Though the voyage itself is essentially a wonder-tale, it is implied that the vessel as described was built in accordance with ordinary practice at the time. An Irish martyrology of the same period says of the Isle of Aran that the boat commonly used there was made of wickerwork and covered with cowhide.〔Quoted in Hornell (1977), p. 17: ''Erat enim in istis partibus, eo aevo, quoddam navigii genus usitatum, ex viminibus contextum, et bovinis coriis contectum; quad Scotica lingua Curach appellatur''.〕 Gerald of Wales, in his Topographia Hibernica (1187), relates that he was told by certain seamen that, having taken refuge from a storm off the coast of Connacht, they saw two men, long-haired and scantily clad, approaching in a slender wickerwork boat covered in skins. The crew found that the two spoke Irish and took them on board, whereupon they expressed amazement, never before having seen a large wooden ship.〔''Topographia Hibernica'', Dist. III, Cap. XXVI: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/index_latin.html. A translation can be found at: http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/topography_ireland.pdf. The Latin passage, of great ethnological interest, is as follows: ''Audivi enim a navibus quibusdam, quod cum quadrogesimali quodam tempore ad boreales et inexscrutabiles Connactici maris vastitates vi tempestatis depulsi fuissent, tandem sub insula quadam modica se receperunt: ubi et anchorarum morsu, funiumque triplicium, immo multiplicium tenacitate se vix retinuerent. Residente vero infra triduum tempestate, et restituta tam eari serenititae quam mari tranquillitate, apparuit non procul facies terrae cujusdam, eis hactenus prorsus ignotae; de qua non longe post et cymbulam modicam ad se viderunt remigantem, arctam et oblongam, vimineam quidem, et coriis animalium extra contextam et consutam. Erant autem in ea homines duo, nudis omnino corporibus, praeter zonas latas de crudis animalium coriis quibus stringebantur. Habebant etiam Hibernico more comas perlongas et flavas, trans humeros deorsum, corpus ex magna parte tegentes. De quibus cum audissent, quod de quadam Connactiae parte fuissent, et Hibernica lingua loquerentur, intra navem eos adduxerunt. Ipsi vero cuncta quae ibi videbant tanquam nova admirari coeperunt. Navem enim magnam et ligneam, humanos etiam cultus, sicut asserebant, nunquam antes viderant.''.〕 The consistency in accounts from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period makes it likely that the construction and design of the currach underwent no fundamental change in the interval. A 17th-century account in Latin by Philip O'Sullivan Beare of the Elizabethan wars in Ireland includes a description of two currachs built in haste to cross the River Shannon. The larger was constructed as follows: two rows of osiers were thrust in the ground opposite each other, the upper ends being bent in to each other (''ad medium invicem reflexa'') and tied with cords, whereupon the frame so made was turned upside down. Planks, seats and thwarts were then fitted inside (''cui e solida tabula, statumina, transtraque interius adduntur''), horse hide was fixed to the exterior and oars with rowlocks were supplied. This vessel is described as being able to carry 30 armed men at a time.〔O'Sullivan-Beare, Philip, ''Historia catholicae Iberniae compendium'', Tom III., Cap IX: https://archive.org/stream/MN42000ucmf_1/MN42000ucmf_1_djvu.txt (though there are a number of errors in the transcription). For a translation of the work, see http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100060/index.html.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Currach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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