Irish Gangs and Stick-Fighting

In the Works of William Carleton

By: John W. Hurley

Introduction

When I first came across an old copy of Carleton's The Party Fight and Funeral, I never could have imagined the effect it would have on my life. The Party Fight lead me to the other works of William Carleton, and these in turn have provided not only hours of entertaining reading, but deep and meaningful insights into Irish history and culture, the Irish character and the Irish way of life in the 19th century and today. Reading Carleton also confirmed my life-long belief that Irish fighting styles or "martial arts" of the 18th and 19th centuries were developed, and consisted of much more than just the drunken brawling often depicted in modern literature and film. This confirmation alone affected the course of my life, by encouraging me to continue to explore and research Irish fighting arts. While exploring other sources of information, I also made a thorough study of all of Carleton's works. Eventually, I committed myself to getting all of his stories about Irish stick-fighters reprinted in a single volume, so that others who share my interest could have easier access to them. This volume is the fruit of that work. Putting it together has been a long and difficult process, but the process of reading, editing and finally publishing these works of William Carleton has brought me great satisfaction.

Carleton's Life

Readers unfamiliar with him may ask who William Carleton was, and how these stick-fighting stories of his came about. William Carleton was Ireland's first great short-story writer and novelist of international repute, although today he is mostly forgotten. His works have been largely overshadowed by subsequent generations of Irish writers. Today, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and scores of other Irish writers dominate the Irish literature courses offered at most universities. This is ironic given that it could be argued that the Irish literary movement which began in the 1890's, was largely initiated by Carleton, however unintentionally, as far back as the 1820's.

Carleton was actually born "Liam O'Cathalain" on Shrove Tuesday in 1794, at Prillisk, near the town of Clogher in County Tyrone. He was the youngest of fourteen children born to a small farmer endowed with a considerable memory for stories and lore, and a mother who could perform the old Irish songs with great emotional pathos and beauty. The O'Cathalain's were native Irish speakers, and Liam's father was in fact a Seanchaí, while his mother was a gifted Sean-nós singer. In O'Cathalain's time, "folk-positions" (as I call them), such as these were actually very professional in nature. By today's standards, performances of songs and stories by Seanchaís and Sean-nós singers would have been of high caliber. It was probably professional performers like the O'Cathalain's who were largely responsible for the Irish contribution to the performing arts of 19th century American popular culture. The children of such performers, newly emigrated to America, were able to translate their skills over into the new mediums of the vaudeville culture being performed in the song and dance halls of America. In a similar way, Liam O'Cathalain was able to translate his own native Irish "show business" background into the English-language, pop culture medium of fiction writing.

From his father, Liam inherited a virtually photographic memory, and an endless supply of history and lore; from his mother, he seems to have inherited an extraordinary ability to present this material creatively and in an entertaining and theatrical way. O'Cathalain's classical education consisted of attending the local hedgeschool, traveling (and teaching) as a "poor scholar", and feeding his literary appetite by reading all the books he could lay his hands on. In his lifetime, Catholic boys and young adults of his intelligence and learning were destined for the priesthood, but Liam O'Cathalain's entry into the seminary was delayed both by his father's death, and by an ever daunting loss of faith, first in Roman Catholicism, and then in Protestantism. This loss of faith haunted him for the rest of his life, and his continuing struggle between faith and the loss of it, seems to have echoed multiple struggles over the numerous layers of dualism extant in the lives of so many generations of Irish people. Irish civilization continues to grapple with the dichotomies of country and city life, tradition and innovation, Gaelic and English language and culture, Christian idealism and worldly secularism, and Catholic and Protestant traditions. The choices—often contradictory and tragic—which the very existence of these opposing cultural elements requires each individual in Irish society to make, and the requisite debates and struggles over those decisions, provided the basic elements underlying all of Carleton's stories. They are constant themes and they have continued to be the central themes throughout most of Irish, English-language literature.

O'Cathalain eventually gained some genuine classical knowledge at the school of a Dr. Keenan, a parish priest in the diocese of Down, and later he became tutor to the children of a farmer in County Louth. A reading of the novel Gil Blas created in him a desire to see more of the world, and quitting his job as tutor, the restless O'Cathalain walked across the country from Tyrone to Dublin.

Penniless, and without any real plans, he took any sort of work he could find. In desperation, he eventually decided to enlist in the British army, and wrote a letter—in Latin—stating his intentions to a Colonel of a regiment. Impressed by his intelligence, the Colonel dissuaded O'Cathalain from enlisting, and not long after this, O'Cathalain met the Protestant minister, Rev. Caesar Otway. Otway was an eccentric character, a mix of antiquarian and missionary zealot, but he was quick to recognize O'Cathalain's intelligence and talent. Otway urged O'Cathalain to try writing stories about Irish peasant life for his Protestant newspaper, the Christian Examiner, to which O'Cathalain enthusiastically agreed, and "William Carleton's" career as a writer was launched. From the start, Otway's missionary agenda and sectarian beliefs influenced the editing of the stories, and this bothered Carleton greatly; eventually they parted ways. For Roman Catholic readers who might find aspects of the stories offensive (as I first did), it should be remembered that when Carleton wrote for Otway, he was in a very desperate situation economically. Carleton may have been an initially enthusiastic convert, but he seems to have also been choosing between severe poverty and destitution on the one hand, and being paid to help further the Protestant missionary agenda of Otway on the other. Like most artists, Carleton was a social critic, and his writing provided him with a chance to use his substantial talents while trying to change what he felt were the less positive aspects of Irish culture. While Carleton was critical of many aspects of Roman Catholicism, it is not known how much Otway interfered with and edited the stories, and some of the more sectarian comments may be attributed to him. Eventually, Carleton distanced himself from Otway and his conversion to the Church of Ireland faltered as well.

When Carleton was about thirty, the stories he had written for the Christian Examiner were printed in one collection, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, considered by some to be his best work. His next work was his first novel, The Dead Boxer, (included in this collection), and he subsequently wrote 19 more novels. The amazing ease and speed with which Carleton could write was demonstrated in 1845 when he agreed to fill in for the great nationalist writer Thomas Davis, a regular contributor to the newspaper publications of James Duffy. Davis died suddenly, and Duffy's newspaper was left unprepared and unable to fill the enormous gap in copy left as a result of his death. Carleton was asked to help and in just six days he presented Duffy with another novel, Paddy-Go-Easy (or Parra Sastha; or The History of Paddy-Go-Easy And His Wife Nancy), which was serialized in Duffy's newspaper with great success. Throughout his life, Carleton continued to write for an ever growing number of readers. Later in his life, he lived at Woodville, Sandford, near Dublin, where he died on 30th January, 1869, aged 70 years, and was buried at Mount Jerome.

Although not popular with many academics, time has shown that Carleton was the undisputed master of depicting 19th century Irish peasant life and traditions in the English language. Many Irish authors who have come after him have acknowledged his greatness. Although Carleton was really Ireland's first great international novelist in the English language, it could also be argued that he was an insightful social historian and anthropologist as well. Through his stories Carleton consciously documented and forever preserved, the disappearing traditions of 19th century Gaelic Irish culture.

Liam O'Cathalain the Stick-fighter

In addition to his considerable literary and artistic talents, Liam O'Cathalain was also a gifted athlete. In the early years of his life, he achieved local fame for his ability at playing the many sports and games in which the Gaelic Irish peasantry took part. These sports included what in today's terms would be considered martial arts such as Irish wrestling and boxing, and from his early youth O'Cathalain seems to have been especially trained as a stick-fighter. For the student of Irish stick-fighting, his works provide an incredible amount of information about Irish stick-fighting, from terminology and traditions, to first-hand, autobiographical accounts of battles. Much of this information in effect, instructs the reader in the rudiments of Ireland's stick-fighting culture. And although the stories are not manuals on self-defense, they do describe some of the techniques used.

It should be emphasized that O'Cathalain himself was an Irish-speaking stick-fighter, who trained and fought as a stick-fighter for much of his early life. That his neighbors, friends and family members continued to do so long after his move to Dublin seems evident from The Party Fight and Funeral. Since O'Cathalain almost always wrote from autobiographical material, the historical accuracy of the Irish stick-fighting traditions documented in his works must be considered authentic and reliable.

The Stories

Although many of Carleton's stories make mention of Factions, Faction Fighting and Stick-fighting, the stories in this collection all focus specifically on Faction gangs or individual Stick-fighters. The Battle Of The Factions tells the story of two feuding Irish clans, the O'Callaghans and the O'Hallaghans, as related by a member of the O'Callaghan family; it has a Romeo and Juliet sub-plot. Neal Malone, the tailor of the O'Callaghan faction in The Battle Of The Factions, is the main character in the comedic, Neal Malone, the story of a diminutive and heroic fighting tailor. Neal—who wants nothing more than to fight and prove his mettle—is forced to solve the conundrum of getting himself involved in a fight when he is so well liked, even by his enemies, that he cannot find anyone who will accommodate him. In The Party Fight And Funeral, the narrator of the tale, Toby D'Arcy, returns to the village of his youth, only to find that one of his childhood friends has recently been killed in one of the huge Party Fights which were common in early 19th century Ireland. This sets the stage for various anecdotes, some amusing, some incredibly tragic, and many of which still reflect very real aspects of life in Ulster. The Dead Boxer is actually a novella set in the 18th century, which involves an Irish stick-fighter and pugilist with a powerful punch, his girlfriend, (who is a member of an enemy Faction—another Romeo and Juliet sub-plot), and another pugilist with a deadly knockout punch, who seems to make a living extorting money out of the burghers of various towns in Ireland.

Carleton's Language

With the exception of The Dead Boxer all of the tales in this book contained some footnotes by Carleton explaining Irish words, Hiberno-Irish expressions, or elements of the stories. These footnotes were minimal and I felt that much of Carleton's language was too obscure for the modern reader to understand. Many other words and expressions needed to be defined if the stories were to be fully understood, so wherever possible I have expanded on Carleton's notes or added my own. Deciding which terms, phrases and explanations to include proved difficult, because of Carleton's impressive use of language. Carleton had a genius for making easily expressed thoughts and ideas more complicated than they need be and he often used phrases from more than one language when doing so. He did this deliberately in order to flaunt his intellectual abilities, vast vocabulary and for comedic effect. But above all he did it in order to bring realism to his stories, for it was common practice for Irish people of the 19th century to constantly flaunt their verbal skills, whether in Irish or a newly acquired English. Impressing, entertaining and competing with each other verbally in English, was a continuation of Irish language traditions, and as Carleton himself says in a footnote from the story Shane Fadh's Wedding, "...the (Irish) peasantry are often extremely fond of hard and long words, which they call tall English". Carleton's own "tall English" comes out repeatedly in the stories: two factions who may unite through a marriage would become "penultimately amalgamated", while kilt wearing men who wore no underwear "eschewed inexpressibles".

The Irish peasant's fondness for "tall English" has resulted in some of the most imaginative, creative and entertaining literature ever written in the English language. Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, remarkable for such a small country, and in Carleton's writings we find the real beginnings of that great literary tradition. As we can see in his writings, that tradition and the worldview of Irish culture which it expresses, has its roots in the Irish language and in Gaelic culture, the oldest culture in Western Europe.

The language of Carleton is in fact a mixture of Gaelic Irish, Elizabethan English and 19th century English, referred to by scholars as "Hiberno-English". Many of Carleton's expressions are phonetically spelt Hiberno-English pronunciations of English language words: "sated" for "seated", "bade" for "bead", etc. In cases such as these where the word is a slight Hiberno-English variation from English, I have not provided endnotes because I felt the meaning of the word was relatively clear. Where I felt the pronunciation and the context of a word left no hints at its meaning, I have provided endnotes. More complex or rarely used English language words were the most difficult to decide on and again, I made endnotes where I felt the context of the word left little or no hint at its meaning. Trying to gloss every word that a reader might not understand would have been impossible.

Wherever possible I have also tried to give modern Irish spellings and translations from Carleton's Irish language expressions. For some cases these are clearly given by Carleton, but for most I have had to come up with my own explanations. My endnotes are the result of much research and an ongoing attempt to familiarize myself with 19th century Irish literature. I feel confident about most, but I am not a professional linguist or philologist and a few of my explanations—in particular for "Tunder-an'-ouns", "tare-an-ounty", "Murther-an-age", "Blur-an'-agers", "Tare-an'-ounze" and "Big tare-an'-ouns"—are purely theoretical reconstructions. These expressions may be rooted in Irish or they may simply be obscure English language exclamations that I have over interpreted.

Readers will notice that there is some repetition in the endnotes. My intention in designing the book this way was to make every story and its endnotes stand completely on their own, giving readers the freedom to start the book wherever they wanted while still being able to refer to the endnotes for that specific story quickly and easily. Because of Carleton's variations in spelling, some readers might not have realized that "shillely", "shillelah" and "shillelagh" are all the same word, and yet because of their variations in spelling, I felt that all needed to be individually noted.

Carleton and Bataireacht

While in the course of writing this book, I have often wondered if Carleton the cantankerous social critic would have chafed at the idea that future generations of readers would use his works to learn more about Irish stick-fighting or "bataireacht". At first it would seem that he would object, afterall, part of Carleton's whole purpose in writing these stories was to expose some of the more negative aspects of Irish society which had affected his life and the lives of his family and friends. But Carleton had diverse reasons for writing and he spent a lifetime verbally attempting to slay those dragons which confronted the downtrodden Irish peasantry: the social ostracization, superstitious fears, secret conspiracies, alcoholism and violence which they often seemed to impose upon themselves and the grinding poverty, sectarianism, injustice and social and political inequality imposed on them by others. He may at times seem too harsh in condemning his countrymen but ultimately, despite all the protestations, Carleton was a man of his people, one who cared deeply about those people, a mixture of the raconteur Seanchaí and the taciturn Irish Schoolmaster.

Carleton seems to have been a bit of a thrill-seeker and a risk-taker as well, who never really lost his love of excitement and the chance to relate the experience of excitement in a good story. Athletics was one subject which provided him with many good memories and anecdotes, and from his stories, I can't help but think that had the Irish stick-fighting of his day been less brutal and less identified with grudges, para-militarism, etc. Carleton would not have objected to it. In Carleton's youth he, like most Irish Catholics of the 19th century, would have heard many times the Fenian Lays and other native Irish martial arts lore. Through their practice of Irish martial arts and their involvement in Irish military and para-military organizations, many Irishmen tried to emulate the exploits of their childhood heroes, and in this Carleton was at first no different from other boys. Instruction through story is an ancient Irish tradition, and even in Carleton's own stories, this paradigm of instruction through story is often at work. But in Carleton's day the ancient, aristocratic and once scientific art of Irish stick-fighting had degenerated in many parts of Ireland into little more than bouts of no holds barred gang warfare. For Carleton the reverie of violence instilled in him by the traditional tales of ancestral martial glory did not survive the brutal realities of 19th century Faction combat. Like many of his contemporaries, Carleton was quick to see the futility in what appeared to be a tradition of routinely attempting to beat his neighbors senseless, all for the sake of honor, glory or sport. Carleton's generation questioned the old wisdom of stick-fighting which was done, as one Irish peasant of the time had said, "because our ancestors had always fought this way". Carleton's generation asked itself why Irishmen were fighting each other in increasingly larger and more deadly battles, while important social and political issues which affected Irish life, were being left unresolved. They began to ask themselves how the Irish could ever claim the right to govern themselves when the countryside was regularly erupting in what amounted to outbreaks of chaotic civil war.

Many Irishmen of the 19th century came to the conclusion that while the practice of martial arts was positive, the practice of Faction Fighting was a tradition which had outlived its usefulness and which needed to be eliminated from Irish society. Faction Fights had become the major public venues where Irish martial artists could display their considerable skills. By the 1820's these fights seem to have come under the total control of the local factions or gangs in many regions of Ireland. A small, anonymous and unaffiliated group of men seemed to wield complete control over these gangs, and many in Ireland felt that if Irish society was to evolve in a more positive direction, the power of these gangs needed to be broken, and their considerable energies, re-directed. Factionalism needed to be replaced by patriotic nationalism, gangs needed to be replaced by disciplined Irish regiments (and an Irish revolutionary army), and the stick and sword needed to be replaced by the gun.

Led by Irish nationalists, this transformation in Irish society did in fact occur although the factions have never disappeared completely. Many Irish nationalists, (both Catholic and Protestant alike), were "reformed" Faction Fighters and retained their martial arts skills after abandoning the practice of Faction Fighting. But despite this, the decline in Faction Fighting seems to have witnessed an overall decline in the practice of Irish stick-fighting. The new social taboo against Faction Fighting discouraged future generations from becoming professional stick-fighters and encouraged them to train instead to become professional soldiers. The futility of, and blind adherence to, Faction Fighting—which had kept the Irish divided—seems to have tainted the practice of Irish stick-fighting. As Faction Fighting became socially unacceptable, interest in learning stick-fighting waned and the resulting decline in students meant that fewer and fewer Irish stick-fighters were able to pass their skills on to others. In succeeding generations, the energies once devoted to Factionism and stick-fighting, were channeled instead into the Fenian movement, the political struggles of the Land League and the sports programs of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Irish martial arts of wrestling and boxing did not die out—if anything the practice of these arts seems to have actually increased at first—but stick-fighting seems to have lost the central place that it had held in Irish society for centuries. What had once been a traditional, rural martial art, which combined the use of athletic skills with the impassioned pursuit of the political, economic and regional objectives of the local community, was broken up and divided into its component parts. The once unified "Shillelagh Culture" as I call it, endured a cultural revolution as Ireland's traditional, peasant culture was slowly replaced with all the trappings of an aspiring Victorian pseudo-state. Organizations and associations built on a national scale and dominated publicly by the Church and the Catholic middle-class (and dominated secretly by the Fenian movement), classified, divided and fragmented various interests or pursuits—sports, politics, the Irish language—into specialized areas of activity or study. The exciting sport violence of faction fighting was replaced with the exciting sport violence of hurling; the economic objectives of faction fighting were replaced by membership in the Land League; the political violence of faction fighting was replaced by membership in the Fenian organization. This re-organization of Irish society did have the desired effect of uniting people across the island in many ways, but at the loss of many local customs and traditions as Irish culture itself became more unified, homogenous and "modern". Modernization was of course, the whole point of this process, with many people in Ireland feeling that this change was a necessary step if Irish society was ever to regain its ancient traditions of independent nationhood. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in post-Famine Ireland, the extinction of Irish civilization still loomed on the horizon as a genuine possibility. It was felt by many that if the Irish did not unite, all could be lost.

Prior to the 19th century Irish martial arts had consisted of more disciplined training for self-defense and warfare and Irish nationalists of the era did promote this fact. Carleton was aware of this as well and admired the ideal of disciplined, controlled martial arts training which enables a person to defend themselves while promoting healthy habits and behaviors. It would be fair to say that Carleton did not object at all to the practice of wrestling, boxing or stick-fencing; the heroes of many of his stories are actually enthusiastically described by Carleton as being expert practitioners of these martial arts. But what Carleton did object to were the social effects of factionism itself, which warped the lives of many of the practitioners of these martial arts. Carleton felt that membership in the Factions was misguided as Faction Fighting itself forced Irish martial artists to misuse and waste their martial arts abilities in senseless and often lethal violence. Making matters worse (Carleton felt), was that this violence often had no clear objective beyond the petty machinations of invisible (and hence unaccountable) leaders. Carleton's own philosophy towards the practice of martial arts actually coincides with the modern ideal of the ethical use of martial arts skills which we find promoted in popular culture today.

Carleton had a long list of things which he wanted to change in Irish society; his success in effecting change and his place in Irish history has yet to be determined. But he clearly pointed the way to what in the 19th century amounted to an alternative Irish identity, one that was traditional and Gaelic in nature, but one which sought to free itself of the negative cultural baggage which had come to ruin the lives of so many. Like many Irish innovators, Carleton was never able to witness Irish society's escape from the social conditions which he hoped would change. Yet with hindsight, we can see today that his writings must have articulated the spirit of a whole segment of Irish society which was traditionally Irish, yet which was independent minded and innovative enough to refuse to be victimized by either the pitfalls of Irish history or the status quo of Irish society. Proof of this is to be found in the fact that many of the changes which Carleton once called for have actually since come about.

Yet Carleton with all his high-minded ideals knew—perhaps better than anyone else—that he could never have been who he had become if he had not first been the "sportin' lad" from Clogher. For all his complaints, mistakes and contradictions, the fact remains that William Carleton was the product of the sum experiences of his Irish peasant youth. The battle hardened boy faction fighter who, by his teen years, had faced potential death hundreds of times on the faction field, grew into the man who routinely challenged virtually every symbol of authority in Ireland from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, to the administrators of the British government. Men have been killed for much less in Ireland, and whatever his original purpose under Otway, Carleton's continued actions afterwards were actually quite courageous in his day. The personal "code of honor" which Carleton adhered to was without a doubt first formed on the faction fields of Ulster, and Carleton knew this. But like many of his era, Carleton had evolved beyond his youth, and grown into a thinking-man's martial artist. He encouraged Irishmen to empower themselves both through education and by rejecting debasing images of themselves (and the debasing behaviors such images invoked), which Carleton felt were ultimately the product of certain anti-Irish elements found in English culture. To Carleton, the darker side of Irish life was ultimately the result not of some Darwinian concept of an alleged Irish inferiority, but rather of the unseen forces which governed the lives of the people: the conditions of unnatural ignorance and poverty forced upon many Irishmen by English Penal Laws. Carleton knew that the persecution of the Irish people had created a poverty stricken culture in which many of the basic components for a healthy culture were lacking. Yet he also knew that despite society's messages to the contrary, what really lay at the heart of his 19th century Irish identity was the resilient and indomitable spirit of the Gaelic Irish people.

In stories such as Willy Reilly, and Redmond Count O'Hanlon, The Irish Rapparee, Carleton reveals how that spirit of the people is a direct continuation of the old Irish warrior tradition. This spirit is an inheritance from Ireland's warrior aristocracy, an aristocracy which since the 16th century, had succeeded in the relentless struggle to maintain the traditions and identity of its civilization despite what must be the most sustained and ruthless campaign of ethnocide in human history. Carleton knew his history and he would have known that this spirit of "the fighting race" had been the product of a culture which was once whole and complete. That culture existed when the structures and institutions of Gaelic society had been intact, and it would have included the original forms of highly developed Irish stick-fighting and other martial arts which I feel Carleton would have also approved of. I believe that Carleton would have seen the value in modern martial arts practices and the values they promote, and I think that he would have identified these values as Irish ones. I think he would be glad to know that he had succeeded in documenting some of the Irish martial arts traditions of his day—both positive and negative—so that future generations could profit from the lessons of history. (Readers interested in obtaining more information about these Irish martial arts can contact the author via e-mail through the xlibris website at www.xlibris.com). Irish Gangs and Stick-Fighting In The Works of William Carleton, is part of a series of books on Irish stick-fighting and other Irish fighting styles which I hope to publish, and I think it fitting that the works of William Carleton—as authentic and genuine an authority on 19th century Irish stick-fighting as we may ever find—should start this series.