Irish Swordsmanship

Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland

Ben Miller

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Hardback

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English

Hudson Society Press
12 October 2017

British & Irish history; Combat sports & self-defence; Fencing; Oriental martial arts

During the eighteenth century, Ireland was Europe's wild west, where the sword was the constant companion of every gentleman, soldier, and rogue. Here, in the dimly lit rooms of Dublin's popular coffee and chocolate houses, among its public parks and cloistered back yards, fearsome duelists such as George Robert ""Fighting"" Fitzgerald, Alexander ""Buck"" English, and Captain David ""Tyger"" Roche fought for life and honor with the sword and pistol. Here, countless swordsmen--colorfully dressed in ruffled silk--stained the ground of St Stephen's Green with blood, and celebrated their survival over glasses of cherry brandy.

This is the story of eighteenth century Ireland's sword culture--of its renowned fencing schools, its famed swordsmen, its female gladiators, and its notorious armed gangs such as the Bucks, Cherokees, and Pinking Dindies, who terrorized the people of Dublin with the small-sword, knife, falchion, and shillelagh, and engaged in vicious battles with members of the city's Night Watch.

Here, also, is the story of Ireland's most celebrated fencing society, the Knights of Tara--whose grand fencing exhibitions won fame and glory for Ireland, whose writings on bayonet fencing found their way into the hands of America's founding father, George Washington, and whose leading member would go on to have a indelible impact upon the history of fencing in the British Isles.

PART TWO of this book contains A Few Mathematical and Critical Remarks on the Sword--an almost completely overlooked fencing treatise, now published again for the first time in more than 230 years, that is currently the only known original treatment of swordsmanship by an Irish author published in Ireland during the eighteenth century. Though anonymously authored, research suggests that this mysterious text--the publication of which directly led to the formation of the Knights of Tara--may be the work of Cornelius Kelly, Ireland's most renowned fencing master. Compiled throughout the 1770s and published in Dublin in 1781, this treatise is by no means a beginner's manual, but is an extensive discussion and elucidation on the technique, form, philosophy, psychology, morality, and strategy of swordsmanship. Although founded upon the French school of small-sword fencing, it exhibits many peculiarities, and the author's method of explaining fencing is unusual for the era. The text contains applications of geometrical and mathematical principles to swordsmanship, how to utilize one's own shadow as a training device, and defenses against assassins and so-called ""dirty tricks."" In the words of its author,

""Almost every Gentleman who applies himself to the Sword, [and] has had a liberal education...consequently will be pleased at an attempt at grafting this art upon the most elevated of the sciences, i.e. the mathematical; and perhaps it may be something novel, to have proved this art, in many instances, to be so closely connected with the common precepts of philosophy.""

Irish Swordsmanship contains extensive footnotes, more than sixty drawings, paintings, and engravings from the period, a comprehensive glossary of terms, and seven appendices.

By: Ben Miller
Imprint: Hudson Society Press
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 191mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 1.066kg
ISBN: 9780999056714
ISBN 10: 0999056719
Pages: 500
Publication Date: 12 October 2017
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

BEN MILLER is an American filmmaker and author. He is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, was the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for screenwriting, and has worked for notable personages such as Martin Scorsese and Roger Corman. For the last twelve years, Miller has studied fencing at the Martinez Academy of Arms, one of the last places in the world still teaching an authentic living tradition of classical fencing. He has served as the Academy's chef de salle, and has authored articles for the Association of Historical Fencing, focusing on the fencing and dueling of the American colonial period. He is the editor of ""Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff"" (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015), containing the writings of the noted duelist and fencing master, Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery. He wrote the foreword to the republication of Donald McBane's classic martial arts treatise, ""The Expert Sword-Man's Companion: Or the True Art of Self-Defence"" (New York: Jared Kirby Rare Books, 2017). Miller's articles about fencing and martial arts history can be found on the websites martialartsnewyork.org and outofthiscentury.wordpress.com.

Reviews for Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland

Irish Swordsmanship is both a labour of love and a ten-year love of labour apparently. The breadth and detail of the easily-assimilated material that is presented (and consulted) is impressive. Nearly every chapter offers something new or long-forgotten for the historical reader to consider, and the effect of the whole is a comprehensive history of a here-to-fore, largely neglected group of HEMA peers during a specific time...Miller is well qualified to undertake this massive and well-documented interpretation of the subject; being both an accomplished authority in written sword lore and history; as well as also knowing what end of a sword (or pike, or bayonet) goes forward; he being a long-time swordplay student and practitioner with the eminent Martinez Academy of Arms... - Wes von Papine u, Academie Duello Ben Miller's Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland is a welcome addition to the corpus of historical European martial arts literature. While there are numerous book on dueling and the martial arts, they tend to be either very broad in scope or focus on other regions of Europe. Until now, few have focused on Ireland, which in the eighteenth century was home to some of the most renowned swordsmen in Europe. Miller's book fills this gap in our knowledge... Miller's treatment is very well executed, and his knowledge and affection for his subject is clear. What he has accomplished is a book that is not only informative but engaging. As a writer, he is able to provide a text rich with information without bogging the reader down with excessive or tangential detail. Miller tackles his subject from several angles. He provides a thorough treatment of the culture of dueling in Ireland, where quarrels arose out of genuine matters of honor, but also where men casually picked fights and killed each other either out of machismo or boredom. He then treats of the gladiatorial stage performances of Irish masters of defense, the prize fighters who, like their English counterparts, demonstrated their skill at swordplay with sharps and risked gruesome mutilation and sometimes death for fame and a little money. Impressively, Miller is also able to provide short biographies of many of Ireland's famed duelists and gladiators. If that wasn't enough by itself, Miller proceeds to wrest from obscurity an anonymous Irish fencing book first printed in 1781 and subsequently ignored for the next two centuries: A Few Mathematical and Critical Remarks on the Sword.Miller provides a faithful transcription of this lengthy work, and makes a compelling argument regarding the identity of the author.Devoid of illustration, it is nonetheless a lively and spirited instructional work. Copiously cited, the book boasts an ample bibliography, and Miller clearly took advantage of a large number of primary and secondary source materials and synthesized them into an eminently readable volume. Even if Irish Swordsmanship inspires future works on Irish fencing, Miller's work will certainly be authoritative for quite some time. - David Kite, Association for Renaissance Martial Arts