Irish Swift Stick System

Irish Shillelagh Fighting Art Basics

• Introduction
• The Stick is King
• Policeman Wittman

Sean Nos Dance

Maldon Meehan - Instructional DVD

Sean Nos Dance - Instructional DVD

Youtube Clips

Brush Dance

John Collins - Brush Dance

Sean-nos Dance (Maldon Meehan)

Sean-nós Dance Lessons - Jigs

Mission Statement

• I recognize the art of the Irish stick as a true Irish art form.

• I believe that the sticks were in use in Ireland before the arrival of the swords from England etc and so a manner of use was already set down.

• I believe that the population at that time did not even speak English and even later many could not speak English so the later English texts were an afterthought forced on them.

• I believe the Irish stick as time went on picked up what was useful from all invading armies but those were additions to an existing system that by necessity was veiled and passed on from word of mouth from teacher to student.

• I believe the mention of the Irish stick and the interchangeable sword work in many English texts was an attempt at another form of eliminating all that was Irish and giving it the good old English white wash as they did with religion, language and every other aspect of the culture they attempted to squash in the reformation and from the second they arrived that the Irish were smart enough to use what of it they liked is to their credit.

• We realize it was an add on to spear, axe, and previous existing stick work that had to be there as indicated in the first place.

• I am adding the Gaelic word “Eire” after the name in parenthesis which simply means Ireland. I am interested in all things pertaining to the stick from Ireland and that includes early Ireland before the reformation and before the Christian missionaries arrived as well as during and after.

Why is it so hard to find references to actual Irish stick fighting?

1. All form of Irish resistance with weapons was forbidden with the invasion of Ireland and the reformation and forced assimilation, destruction of the language and all things Irish to the extent that some people in Ireland today are shocked that a method was in use for the stick thinking it was just a brute force weapon like a cave man club. Of course not only is that demeaning to the Irish people. It is silly demanding proof from written texts is also bound to fail unless old Gaelic texts can be found which discuss it that predates the ban on weapons.

2. All books that have been so far discovered cite English influence from other weapons like swords which to me only prove they were instilling their own 'take over " of any remnants of Irish individuality and putting their brand on it and as time went by it became excepted by some of the people. While that then had a later influence I believe the real insular Irish stick fighting that I have seen, and others have, survived by word of mouth as a family tradition and as such was very closely guarded, at first to prevent being killed and later because of negative connotations. As an example we know druids existed. Try and find a real druid text book from that period. You can’t, because those were also destroyed and a lot of that tradition existed from word of mouth. Because it was so widespread however it remains known that something existed even though it was effectively wiped out but for the little that remained here and there and went through a reconstruction much later by interested people as well as they could.

3. When I was exposed to this art it was a close family system that not even the other family members but the one son had any interest in and that the father taught. To the reason the teachers name is no longer used, which by the way was not the situation at the start is because he and his family were threatened for opening up about it, as well as the other members all of a sudden got angry they were not the ones getting the information. He met with the family and got over that issue but the threats became too much from outsiders. If it did not exist no one would care or be upset it was being given out of course. Therefore to me the core of real Irish stick fighting still lies not in old books with propaganda implanted by invaders, reformists and assimilators (who are sometimes quoted as Irish, but then found to have only lived there a short time or were later in the period and assimilated themselves ) but with the people, a few who still may remember all or parts of what was passed on to them as family methods to use. The Irish stick which hung by the door always ready if needed was guided by the ways and means of the locals who each developed their ideas and so systems of its use among themselves.

My mission is to return with dignity the value of Irish stick fighting with as much material obtained from folk sources as possible so as not to further contaminate a true Irish martial art. This involves field work not book work and the English were known to burn and destroy every aspect of the culture they could and replace it with their own. It involves working from the past forward and not from more recent books on broadsword work etc backwards which are highly skewed as indicated. Anything else in my opinion contributed to the destruction of the true Irish martial art making the Irish seem incapable of having their own art until the English "educated" them and is demeaning as well to all Irishmen and I won’t contribute any more to it. I am constantly searching for more information on the old techniques, the lore and the systems much as I found my first teacher John.

My search will be in those areas. Glen Doyle and my teacher are proof these existed, certainly more did as well then as the law of probability would not follow that the only two known systems came about that way and they are the only ones that ever did! You won’t find that these were taught in schools or written in the normal books but taught in glens and forests. We must accept this to perpetuate it and research it properly while keeping the ones we find alive by practicing them.