Cead Bua - Irish Stick Fighting History
“There are a number of aspects of Ireland’s rich cultural heritage that have unfortunately been forgotten or ignored, left on the periphery of Irish popular culture. Centuries of deliberate and repressive warfare, famine, and forced migration have left many Irish people, even in Ireland, alienated from some of their own most fascinating and empowering cultural traditions. One of these seemingly forgotten traditions is the Irish art of Bataireacht or Stick-Fighting.”
John J. Hurley PhD, Celtic Historian
The Irish have used various sticks and cudgels as weapons of self-defense for centuries. Since ancient times, the arts of stick fighting had been handed down from fathers to sons or learned in traditional military fencing schools. The traditional Irish shillelagh is still identified with popular Irish culture to this day, although the arts of bataireacht are much less so. The sticks used for bataireacht are not of a standardised size, as there are various styles of bataireacht, using various kinds of sticks. Many historians agree that faction fighting had class and political overtones. As the push for Irish independence from Great Britain gained steam toward the end of the 19th century, leaders of the Irish community believed it was necessary to distance themselves from customs associated with factionism and division, to present a united military front to the British, hence the “United Irishmen” of the Republican movement. Foremost of these customs were the arts of bataireacht, and the shillelagh was soon replaced with the gun of the new unified faction of the Fenian Movement.
