Bataireacht: The Art of Irish Stick-Fighting
By John W. Hurley
Special to The Wild Geese Today
PART 1: THE 'FACTION-FIGHTING' IRISH
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Dating its origins exactly, of course, is speculation,
but what is certain is that the use of the stick as a
weapon seems to have been considered -- by the Irish
themselves -- a quintessentially Irish characteristic.
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| To buy John Hurley's book, click on the cover image |
The origins of the Irish martial art of Irish
stick-fighting, colorfully and accurately portrayed in
Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated film
"The Gangs of New York," goes back millennia.
Dating its origins exactly, of course, is speculation,
but what is certain is that the use of the stick as a
weapon seems to have been considered -- by the Irish
themselves -- a quintessentially Irish characteristic.
This Irish fondness for the stick as a weapon also
belies a cherished cultural preference, rather than a
historical necessity, which dates from Ireland's
ancient past.
The Gaelic game of hurling, for example, was itself a
form of martial arts training before it was tamed
(only somewhat!) and standardized into a national
sport by the Gaelic Athletic Association. Like the
"melee" of the Norman knight, hurling matches
were originally meant, in part, to both imbue young
warriors with a feeling for combat, and to aid them in
their agility with sword and axe weaponry.
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"Gangs" Film Shows Rites of Violence
Martin Scorsese's film
"The Gangs of New York" has
received both commercial success and critical acclaim,
along with 10 Oscar nominations. Yet some
Irish-American commentators and scholars have
criticized it for its manipulations of history.
With regards to certain details (such as the New York City Draft Riots), it is true
that Scorsese took artistic license with places, dates, and events. But without question, the overall content of the movie depicted with remarkable accuracy
the sufferings of the Irish immigrants of the 19th century. The film was unabashedly pro-Irish.
Particularly well-portrayed in the film are some of
the traditions of Irish faction fighting and how these
traditions were transplanted into 19th century
America. Both Herbert Asbury (author of the
"The Gangs of New York" book that inspired the film) and Martin
Scorsese were likely unaware of these traditions, yet
their historical existence was documented by Irish
author William Carleton in his "Traits And Stories of
The Irish Peasantry" and other works. Carleton lived
from 1794 to 1869, and grew up near
Clogher in County Tyrone. Through his writings,
we can examine these traditions and see how accurately
they were depicted in the film.
Many accurate details made it into the film. For
example, Irish factions always carried a symbol of
their gang into battle on a pike. In Carleton's
childhood, his faction symbol was a potato stuck on a
pike, and this is depicted in the film with the Dead
Rabbits carrying their rabbit on a kind of spear.
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| One of Carleton's faction fighters wielding his "shillelagh." |
Brendan Gleeson's character is armed with one kind of
the Irish club known as a Sail Eille or "Shillelagh"
-- a "thonged cudgel." As Carleton and other Irish
writers of his generation show in their stories, Irish
faction fighters also used a variety of weapons
besides shillelaghs -- everything from scythes,
sickles, and flails to swords, brass knuckles,
hobnailed boots, and guns. This variation is
displayed in "Gangs of New York."
I do wish Scorsese had included more authentic
styles of Irish martial arts -- especially the various
forms of Irish stick-fighting. But he very clearly
delineates the bloody nature of the struggles fought between the
Catholic Irish and Protestant Americans in the 19th century. And that,
after all, seems to have been his ultimate intention. -- JWH
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Fatalities often occurred in hurling matches, just as
in the melee, and even at much later dates,
such as the 19th century, some of the largest
stick-fighting battles on record -- involving whole
villages - started out as a kind of hurling match
known as a "Scuabin". The various arts of Irish
stick-fighting reached their zenith in the first half
of the 19th century, when Irish gangs were beginning to dominate New York's streets. These sorts of outbreaks, along with the generally chaotic nature of stick-fighting matches, aided in the demise of popular stick-fighting in
Ireland.
Stick-fighting matches usually occurred at fairs and
on Pattern (or "Patron") Days, and involved two
opposing gangs or "factions." These matches became
known as "Faction Fights," and eventually Irish
stick-fighting became strongly associated with them.
At first encouraged by English authorities as a way of
keeping the Irish divided, faction fighting was
eventually outlawed as fatalities at matches increased
and the size and political power of the factions grew.
They encouraged lawlessness within the already
largely lawless "underground" culture of the Gaelic
Irish and aided in the empowerment of the network of
Irish secret societies that came to dominate the life
of the countryside.
In time, An Gorta Mor (The Irish Famine), the
influence of the Catholic Church, and the rise of
Fenianism (militant Irish republicanism) put an end to
large-scale Faction Fighting, as more and more of the
agrarian faction groups united and were absorbed into
the Fenian organization in the latter half of the 19th
century.
Eventually, Irish Faction Fighting was outlawed. The
last of the classic Faction Fights is often said to
have taken place in 1887. But real stick-fighting faction
feuds are known to have continued, even into the 20th
century, in parts of Cork, Kerry, and Tipperary.
Today there is an unfortunate reemergence of a kind of faction fighting in the
almost daily battles in the streets of Ulster.
Perhaps more remarkably, the Irish art of
stick-fighting (Bataireacht in Irish) continues to
this day in a style passed through generations of a
branch of the Doyle family of Newfoundland, Canada.
Called Uisce Beatha Bata Rince, the style is now being
taught publicly for the first time by Glen Doyle, a
well-known Canadian Kung Fu stylist, through his
Cead Bua stick fighting club in Toronto.
Next week: Sorting through theories about origins of
Faction Fighting.
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