Recently, Travel + Leisure magazine rated Galway, Ireland the world’s friendliest city. I wonder whether it has anything to do with the Galway hookers? But what is a Galway hooker? Is it:
- A Galway street-walker?
- A traditional single masted fishing boat?
- A craft beer that twice won medals as”Best Beer in Ireland”?
- A bar in New York’s West Village?
The answer is “yes.” Friendly though it may be, I am guessing that Galway is not well known for its street-walkers. Galway is, however, known for its traditional fishing boats called hookers. And yes, there is also a craft beer and at least one bar named after Galway hookers.
The Galway hooker was developed in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland. It is identified by its sharp, clean entry, bluff bow, marked tumble-home and raked transom. Its sail plan consists of a single mast with a main sail and two foresails. Traditionally, the boat is black (being coated in pitch) and the sails are a dark red-brown. The image of a hooker is featured on the County Galway coat of arms. Now used as often for recreation as for fishing, the Galway Hooker Association schedules regular regattas. A video by Mikeishing Ó Flatharta featuring the Galway hooker sailing fleet after the page break.
Why are they called hookers? The word hooker, in Irish Gallic, húicéir, probably comes from the Dutch “hoeker,” from Middle Dutch “hoeckboot” meaning a fishing vessel. “Hoec” originally meant a fishhook. In sailor’s slang, a hooker can also mean an old, worn-out, or clumsy ship.
Hooker, as used to described a prostitute, also appears to have a nautical origin. In the 19th century the Corlear’s Hook neighborhood on New York’s East River became a shipbuilding center. Corlear’s Hook is to the north of the South Street Seaport docks. The area known simply as “the Hook” was also a red-light district catering to sailors and shipyard workers. As recounted in the Bowery Boogie Blog, on street in the neighborhood “Walnut Street [now Jackson] probably had the highest concentration of commercial sex in New York…Prostitution in the Hook was the most impoverished in the city… By 1839, eighty-seven brothels were situated in the Hook.“
I worked in Cork, Ireland, some of the girls going into the club at night looked like hookers.
Also worked in Bournemouth, England on the channel, had the chanse with one from thd pub, but turned it down, nice looking blonde girl, but my fear of AIDs took over.
Good beer and alcoholic cider in both places, food at the B&B got old, same breakfast daily, not much change at night.
Finally went out for steak, was warned of Mad Cow by one of the patrons, but that was almost 20 years ago, I’m still here and functional.