mensur duels

SLUSK

I have been reading about a practice that was very common among upper class students in Germany until early or middle of the 20th century. These duels were called mensur and people were supposed to inflict wounds on each other. The scars from these duel were worn as a badge of honour and showed that you belonged to the elite of society.
http://www.fencingfuture.org/cntnt/eng/fehtovanie9/eng_history/menzurnoe_.html

Were there ever anything similar to this going on in Ireland?

This type of fencing still seems to exist in some form in German student circles.

Quillo

Mensur duels became outrageously stylized encounters with heavy padding and protection everywhere except the parts of the face where they wanted the scars !

Duelling in Ireland had very much moved to firearms by the 18th century. (See a copy of the Irish Duelling code of the period attached.)

It was said that, when enquiring of a man's suitability as a future son-in-law, gentlemen of the period would ask "does he blaze".... the common expression used to describe a duel at the time.


Sir Jonah Barrington notes in Personal Sketches of his Own Times – his ‘Own Times’ being the mid-18th century – that “Tipperary and Galway were the ablest schools of the duelling science”. Barrington also remarks that, “No young fellow could finish his education till he had exchanged shots with some of his acquaintances. The first two questions always asked as to a young man’s respectability and qualifications, particularly when he proposed for a lady – wife, were, - ‘What family is he of?’ – ‘Does he blaze?’