Now for something completely different. A little bit of folklore about an Irish custom that is fast dying out. Once upon a time all young boys were taught to defend themselves as part of their passage into manhood. Some may think it barbaric but it was just the way of the warrior in times gone by. Nowadays we have martial arts styles being taught that usually have their origins in the Far East Japan, China, Korea, Thailand or the Philippines. I wonder do people realize that we have our own home grown martial art.
Walk softly and
carry a big stick.
Bata. Irish Stick
Fighting.
Bata is our native Irish martial art and since a cane or
walking stick can be carried easily in modern society a bata (which means
stick) can be used as an extremely effective weapon. Irish stick fighting as it
is also known, is a traditional form of Irish martial art using a stick. The
most common types of wood used were oak, ash, hazel and of course blackthorn.
Down through the centuries we have used various sticks or cudgels and the one
that most people would be aware of is the shillelagh.
Irish stick fighting
came into its own sometime around the 17th century when we were
banned from owning formal weapons. At that time the innocent walking stick
called a bata or shillelagh came into use as a serious weapon and stick
fighting became an integral part of our fighting style. In the 19th
century bata became associated with gang or “faction” fighting. Some evidence
exists which indicates that prior to the 19th century the term had
been used to refer to a form of stick fighting used to train Irish soldiers in
broadsword and sabre techniques.
Although stick fighting is a free style form of combat there are certain
patterns and family styles in existence.
Fights with the bata were not always of the faction variety;
some were sporting events, while others were provoked just for fun. One
tradition at a fair was for a man to drag his coat on the ground behind him and
throw down the challenge,
"Who'll tread on the tail of my coat?",
or to ask a crowd, "Who'll say black is the white of my
eye?"
Often these were friendly, if somewhat rough contests.
The basic idea behind the use of the
bata is to charge, strike and disarm your opponent aiming for the vulnerable
points such as joints, shoulders, knees and temple or for areas where nerves
could be struck. You can use the bata one handed which was the traditional
method but some will use the bata with both hands, a two handed grip which is a
little awkward. Some fighters specialized in the use of two sticks. This was called the
Troid de bata or two-stick fight. The stick held in the offhand was used as a
shield.
Many young Irishmen practiced with the stick
regularly because constant sparring was needed to improve their skills.
However, while a young man would have been taught by his father to always hold
the bata tightly to his chest, so as never to be taken unawares, the finer
points of its use would have been learned from the visiting fencing master.
The bata was held somewhat towards the lower middle
of the stick and was snapped out with the wrist rather than swung like a
cudgel. A simple art in terms of technique, it still took years of practice to
master. In his 1790 book, Personal Sketches of His Own Times, Sir John
Barrington wrote that the stick fights were exhibitions of skill; he said they
were like sword exercises and did not appear savage. “Nobody was disfigured, or
in great need of a doctor. I never saw a bone broken or a dangerous contusion
from what was called 'whacks' of a shillelagh (which was never too
heavy)." He was obviously never hit with one.
As with a lot of
the various martial arts bata has become tainted by its depiction in such films
as The Gangs of New York and it has been made out to be a brutish form of
fighting instead of the very precise and extremely well executed
defence system it
becomes in the hands of a well trained and disciplined practitioner.
No known
textbooks for the use of a bata exists but its use has been reconstructed using
sources that include introducing various forms from other stick fighting styles
such as Escrima, a Filipino stick fighting system, or Hanbo, which is a Japanese stick fighting system. There is
still an Irish style that has been passed down by the name of Rince An Bata
Uisce Bheatha meaning whisky stick dance where the stick is held with a two
handed grip. Cumann Bata is an organisation teaching a one handed version which
they have reconstructed where the hand is approximately a third of the way from
the end of the stick and the stick is held just above the head.
The Bata used to be our weapon of
choice before the gun arrived, It was cheap and readily available and the
walking stick or long staff could be carried anywhere and so was always by your
side if you needed to defend yourself. Women could carry it just as well and
this would have been quite normal in Irish society. The word Shillelagh was
actually coined by an Englishman (or so the story goes). The original stick of
that name came from the Shillelagh forest in County Wicklow, where the forest
was once famous for its stands of fine oak trees.
Sometimes the knob on the end was hollowed out and filled
with molten lead, which was known as a 'loaded stick'. However, in shillelaghs
made of blackthorn, the knob was actually the root, and it would not have been
necessary to load it as it could pack a significant wallop. The bark is left on
for added strength and a metal end is attached to the bottom. During the curing
and drying process, sticks would be buried in a manure pile or smeared with fat
and placed in the chimney. The bata was taken up by Irish boys when they became
of age, it was seen by some as representing their passage into manhood and they
would practice their fighting techniques as a way of demonstrating their right
to be a warrior.
Irishmen would take their shillelagh just about
everywhere they went; however, it was at a fair, a wake or a feast day
celebration that it was most needed. Up until the great famine of the 1840's,
faction fighting was always present at most social gatherings. The factions
were mostly members of certain families, political groups or territorial gangs.
Sometimes the fights would consist of hundreds of men; women would participate
by wielding a stocking filled with stones. After the 1840's, the faction fights
gradually died off and the last recorded one was held at a fair in Co.
Tipperary in 1887.
Shillelagh fights were not always of the faction
variety. Some were sporting events, while others were provoked just for fun.
These were friendly fights sometimes ending up somewhat rough, although it was
rare for a participant to need the aid of a doctor.
If you have a shillelagh made of oak, ash, holly or
blackthorn, you do indeed have an authentic shillelagh. The short, stubby ones
sold in souvenir shops are not real shillelaghs.
So there you have it, a little folklore on Irish martial
arts.
By the way, did you know that that great Irish writer Sir
Arthur Conan-Doyle, alright some may argue that he was born in Edinburgh but a
horse is a horse it doesn’t matter where the stable he was born in is located.
Anyway, he made his famous character Sherlock Holmes a master of single stick
fighting. I will leave stick fighting
with a short poem.
Oh an Irishman’s heart is as stout as
a shillelagh
It beats with delight to chase sorrow
and woe
When the piper plays up, then it
dances gaily
And thumps with a whack to leather a
foe.
No comments:
Post a Comment