what is the history of martial arts in Ireland?

silverharp

Just curious as to how and when martial arts arrived in Ireland? did it exist pre WW2? or was it down to expats coming back from the US or Britain in the 60's 70's. Also did the push come from Japan itself or with their own communites in the US?

thegreatiam

any martial art in particular? I seem to remember that there is an irish martial art, some kind of stick fighting. that the sort of thing your thinking of.
or specifically karate/kung fu stuff

maguffin

thegreatiam wrote: »

any martial art in particular? I seem to remember that there is an irish martial art, some kind of stick fighting. that the sort of thing your thinking of.
or specifically karate/kung fu stuff

Indigenous martial art came first....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataireacht

and this about Judo in Ireland....

http://www.swordsjudo.com/index.php/history-of-judo/history-of-irish-judo

I suggest doing some Google searches ....there is a lot of stuff out there.

Peetrik

I have serious doubts over the authenticity of the Irish stick fighting/Batairacht stuff.

While I reckon its very likely people used sticks as weapons in our history I find that the 'art' was passed to a sole Canadian practitioner who has managed to 'revive it' suspicious to the point of absurdity.

Rooneymara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collar-and-elbow

I believe this should be authentic, I believe every country would have had some sort of organised grappling.

Its a pity it wasn;t continued to be practiced though.

Dyr

Sole canadian practitioner who's ancient authentic family art was named incorrectly in irish and then magically changed to the correct usage when people on the internet pointed it out.


A project on who did what when in Irish Martial arts would be interesting Most of the first generation of practitioners aren't going to be around much longer.

the problem is the amount of bitching and old scores that it would bring out

silverharp

thegreatiam wrote: »

any martial art in particular? I seem to remember that there is an irish martial art, some kind of stick fighting. that the sort of thing your thinking of.
or specifically karate/kung fu stuff

Judo and Karake mostly or anything out of Asia

Damo W

silverharp wrote: »

Judo and Karake mostly or anything out of Asia

Check this out.... book and person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ruddock

silat liam

Bambi wrote: »

Sole canadian practitioner who's ancient authentic family art was named incorrectly in irish and then magically changed to the correct usage when people on the internet pointed it out.


A project on who did what when in Irish Martial arts would be interesting Most of the first generation of practitioners aren't going to be around much longer.

the problem is the amount of bitching and old scores that it would bring out

Yeah my american silat teacher who i was studying under at the time suddenly started teaching Irish Stick. He thought it was a great way to get money out of the Irish American market. He basicly used the same moves he had learnt in silat and kali but now did it with a shillileagh, and wearing Irish clothing from the 19th century to give it that extra feeling. He did manage to fool a number of people for a while.

On arrival of martial arts in Ireland, I started openly teaching silat in May 1985 I think this was the first dedicated silat club in Ireland at the time as I never came across any other teachers in Ireland before that. So from our side this may be the correct time silat was introduce to Ireland. Hope this helps with collection of knowledge.

antybots

http://sajujirugi.blogspot.ie/2009/12/irish-taekwon-do-beginning-with-cork.html


The above is an article about the beginnings of TKD in Ireland

smacl

Peetrik wrote: »

I have serious doubts over the authenticity of the Irish stick fighting/Batairacht stuff.

While I reckon its very likely people used sticks as weapons in our history I find that the 'art' was passed to a sole Canadian practitioner who has managed to 'revive it' suspicious to the point of absurdity.

Yep. Best reference I'm aware of on the subject is O'Donells 'Irish Faction Fighters of the Nineteenth Century' from 1975. It's been a few years since I've read it, but from memory it came about by the French teaching some basic sword fighting skills modified for cudgels, for the benefit of aiding possible insurgency. The faction fights themselves tended to be between groups at fairs and markets, rather than between individuals.

Any videos I've seen of the Canadian stuff look like a bastardised form of escrima, with costumes and titles borrowed from Karate. Whatever floats your boat. If I was tempted to try stick fighting myself, I'd be looking towards Filipino martial arts rather than some supposedly ancient local stuff.

BJJ_Expert

Check out the Irish Fighter, they had a good article on the early days of Karate. An American called John McSweeney was mentioned. though their may have been Karate clubs here before him.

" in 1962 called John McSweeney received his Black Belt from Edmund Parker. That same year he left for Dublin, Ireland to pursue his Masters Degree from Trinity College. It was there that he opened the Karate School of Ireland. It was also the first commercial Karate school in Ireland. Following in his instructor’s footsteps, he is also considered by many to be the father of Karate in Ireland. A short while after attaining his Masters Degree, he left Ireland for the states. "
http://www.kenpothoughts.com/tribute-to-john-mcsweeney.html

CIARAN_BOYLE

silverharp wrote: »

Just curious as to how and when martial arts arrived in Ireland? did it exist pre WW2? or was it down to expats coming back from the US or Britain in the 60's 70's. Also did the push come from Japan itself or with their own communites in the US?

Not Ireland but there is a documentary on tomorrow night on the history of martial arts in GB. BBC4 10pm

Bres

We have a great heritage of sport in this country that isn't appreciated or explored as much as it should. We had a games similar to the Olympics, that had wrestling, and dates back further than the ancient Olympics.

Dyr

The tailteann games? They tried to revive them in the 20s or 30s

Bres

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/tailteann-games-place-in-history-going-for-a-song-26304558.html


Yup!

Zen machine

whats the history of bjj in ireland?Far as I remember,mick aldridge was the first irish person to study bjj (in the states in the mid 90s ) and possibly the first to teach it here but wasnt actually a bjj school.John kavanagh would have been the first to take it seriously and start teaching it on a significant scale in around the later 90s.Anyone know anymore details?I know bjj was already in england before this so possibly some irish may have been training there.

smacl

Zen machine wrote: »

whats the history of bjj in ireland?Far as I remember,mick aldridge was the first irish person to study bjj (in the states in the mid 90s ) and possibly the first to teach it here but wasnt actually a bjj school.John kavanagh would have been the first to take it seriously and start teaching it on a significant scale in around the later 90s.Anyone know anymore details?I know bjj was already in england before this so possibly some irish may have been training there.

I seem to remember Clive S. and some other UCD martial arts people training BJJ and talking about cage fighting in the mid 90s. Seemed totally bizarre at that point.

darced

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