[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

New Wing Chun class forming in Cork out of Kinsale. Si-Fu Michael Clifford is now taking students who wish to learn Wing Chun.

You can contact me by sending me an email to Michaelclifforddc@yahoo.com

Thanks.

[Michael O Leary]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

New Wing Chun class forming in Cork out of Kinsale. Si-Fu Michael Clifford is now taking students who wish to learn Wing Chun.

You can contact me by sending me an email to Michaelclifforddc@yahoo.com

Thanks.

Hi,

Great to have more Wing Chun/Tsun in Cork and Ireland in general. Good luck with the classes.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun.ie

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

Thanks for the good wishes. Yes not enough Wing Chun for sure.

My best-M

[Michael O Leary]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

Thanks for the good wishes. Yes not enough Wing Chun for sure.

My best-M

Hi M,

Yep I agree, however so far there is a good variety of Wing Chun/Ving Tsun/Wing Tsun schools in County Cork. As far as I know there is one school that teaches Fatshan Wing Chun, another from the Wong Shun Leung Ving Tsun and two independant Wing Tsun schools. Yours will be a welcome addition.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun.ie

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

Thanks Michael.

Fatshan W.C. that's interesting. Didn't know that was here in Cork. For so long it seemed like Yip Man had had the monopoly on Wing Chun. In the states I have seen quite abit of diversity within the style and alot more openess to sharing. Always a good thing I think. All the secrets are no longer secret; pehaps the secret was always that there were no secrets.

-Michael

[Michael O Leary]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

Thanks Michael.

Fatshan W.C. that's interesting. Didn't know that was here in Cork. For so long it seemed like Yip Man had had the monopoly on Wing Chun. In the states I have seen quite abit of diversity within the style and alot more openess to sharing. Always a good thing I think. All the secrets are no longer secret; pehaps the secret was always that there were no secrets.

-Michael

Hi Michael, :-)

As far as I know, the Wing Chun taught in Cork comes from the Wing Chun that Yip Man taught Lun Kai and Kwok Fu in Fatshan before he moved to Hong Kong after the end of the Chinese civil war.

This is different from the Wing Chun that he then taught in Hong Kong and even in the Wing Chun that he taught in Hong Kong there is a further difference in what his two sons Yip Chun and Yip Ching teach as well as a difference in what Wong Shun Leung taught and the head of our organisation, Leung Ting teaches.

There are probably many reasons for this however it does reflect the diversity in Wing Chun/Ving Tsun/Wing Tsun which is reflected in the Cork schools.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun.ie

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

Many changes since I last taught in Ireland. At that time 1984, I was one of only 3 people in the country to teach Wing Chun. One person had a class that was based in Dublin and the other Sifu had one in Cork.

As the founder of the Academy of Wing Chun Kung Fu Ireland, I established 6 schools throughout Kerry, with a combined total of 350 students. Quite a number of my former students are still training in Wing Chun to this day, 27 years later.
At the time I was fortunate to be able to raise the awareness of Wing Chun in Ireland through several great newspaper articles and radio interviews and with public demos.We even went toe to toe in a competition with another Kung fu organization called Fire Dragon. Any style or branch of Wing Chun would have been well recieved at that time. Definately a very exciting time to be teaching here in Ireland.

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

No such ambitions anymore by the way, just to be clear. My focus these days is building the awareness of natural healing, as a Chiropractic Sports Physician.

All the best.

Michael Cifford D.C CCSP

[OLDMAN1]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

I was one of only 3 people in the country to teach Wing Chun. One person had a class that was based in Dublin and the other Sifu had one in Cork.

Who were the other 2?

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

Originally Posted by OLDMAN1

Who were the other 2?

I don't know the name of the guy in Dublin.
In Cork a very well respected Si-fu John Reardon, who has continued to keep the flame of wing chun going strong.

[OLDMAN1]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

I don't know the name of the guy in Dublin.
In Cork a very well respected Si-fu John Reardon, who has continued to keep the flame of wing chun going strong.

John did some training in the Dublin club in the early 80's, i dont know if he started there but he ended up doing some training with Simon Lau, there were 3 guys teaching in Dublin at the time, Wally Dillon, Leo Moore and Francis Sue (that spelling is'nt right)

[USWINGCHUNSIFU]

Originally Posted by OLDMAN1

John did some training in the Dublin club in the early 80's, i dont know if he started there but he ended up doing some training with Simon Lau, there were 3 guys teaching in Dublin at the time, Wally Dillon, Leo Moore and Francis Sue (that spelling is'nt right)

Well i'm not exactly sure what time you mean but I'm talking 1984-87 And I'm going off what John told me himself. As far as I was given to understand there was one guy in cork and one guy in Dublin.

I was a student of Simon lau from 1975-1980. I never knew John at that time. When I started in 1975 there was only a handful of Wing Chun Sifu in the UK. Joseph Cheng in Lambeth, Victor Khan in London, Simon Lau in Dagenham and Alan Lamb in the Midlands. Also, Austin Gogh in London.

So thats the history of Wing Chun in. Ireland as I know it. And also uk in the very early days.

[Michael O Leary]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

I was a student of Simon lau from 1975-1980. When I started in 1975 there was only a handful of Wing Chun Sifu in the UK. Joseph Cheng in Lambeth, Victor Khan in London, Simon Lau in Dagenham and Alan Lamb in the Midlands. Also, Austin Gogh in London.

Hi Michael,

Thats interesting. The head of our European organisation (EWTO) Keith Kernspecht originally studied with Joseph Cheng who then put him in contact with Leung Ting.
http://www.wingtsunwelt.com/gm-kernspecht

I started Wing Tsun in 1993 in Manchester with Nick Smart who was the representative for Leung Ting in the UK at the time. While there I met Aidan Canavan who was the representative for Southern Ireland. When I moved back to Dublin three months later I continued in Aidan's city centre school.

Aidan himself had trained in the Church Street school and took over the reins when the instructors stopped teaching and became a student of Nick Smart. Both myself and Aidan are now students of Rainer Tausend who is and has been a student of Keith Kernspecht since about 1977.

I find the connections in history between the various schools interesting.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun.ie

[OLDMAN1]

Originally Posted by USWINGCHUNSIFU

Well i'm not exactly sure what time you mean but I'm talking 1984-87 And I'm going off what John told me himself. As far as I was given to understand there was one guy in cork and one guy in Dublin.

I was a student of Simon lau from 1975-1980. I never knew John at that time. When I started in 1975 there was only a handful of Wing Chun Sifu in the UK. Joseph Cheng in Lambeth, Victor Khan in London, Simon Lau in Dagenham and Alan Lamb in the Midlands. Also, Austin Gogh in London.

So thats the history of Wing Chun in. Ireland as I know it. And also uk in the very early days.

I did some training with Joseph Cheng and Austin Goh, But in my opinion Joseph was a different level to anybody else at the time in the UK

[OLDMAN1]

Originally Posted by Michael O Leary

Hi Michael,

Thats interesting. The head of our European organisation (EWTO) Keith Kernspecht originally studied with Joseph Cheng who then put him in contact with Leung Ting.

I find that surprising , even forgeting the politics of the time, Joseph Cheng was a student of Lee Sing, why would he send him to somebody else.