Irish Gangs And Stick-Fighting: In The Works Of William Carleton

Very enjoyable book. great stories, just really fun to read. I noticed though that the folks in the stories almost always carry oak instead of blackthorn,interesting.

In the early 19th century, an impoverished Gaelic speaking author named Liam O'Cathalain Anglicised his name to William Carleton, and began publishing short stories in English. A former gang member from the farming villages of what is now Northern Ireland, he wrote about the world he knew, and as a result many of his stories are imbued with the same anti-gang message as your stereotypical movie set in the inner city. His stories tell very much about why young Irish men joined gangs or "factions" as they were called. If a young Irish peasant was a faction member, the landlord and his agents would think twice about evicting him, his family, or his friends. If they insisted, the landlord and his agents would likely end up dead. However, the factions spent more time fighting amoung themselves than taking on the system. In the story "Neal Malone," a doughty, but short, tailor has his desire to make his bones on the gang scene shattered after he marries the nastiest shrew in the parish. In "The Battle of the Factions," the love between an Irish Romeo and Juliet is nowhere near enough to end the pathological hatred that exists between two gangs. Editor John W. Hurley has provided copious notes, which I was very grateful for, as otherwise I would have had a very difficult time the dialogue of the stories, a dialect birthed by the shotgun-marriage between the English and Gaelic tongues. In closing, I have to say that I am very grateful both to Mr. Carleton for writing these tales and to Mr. Hurley for finally reissuing them. For this they both deserve a round of applause.

In my own humble and (admittedly) Irish opinion, this is a great collection of stories by a 19th century Irishman who grew up in the older Irish ways yet was educated in the English ways. Thus, you have a group of stories that the man could have written in Irish but in order to sell the stories at all had to write in English. Carleton is writing during an interesting period, when many of the Irish people still spoke Irish! Yet English was gaining as the dominant language, and when a language passes much culture is lost along with it. Carleton bridges an important gap, and his stories are both important and interesting for that reason. Hurley published these stories as examples of a dying warrior culture on the brink of passing, for the purpose of revealing real Irish stick-fighting, and it is clearly shown. It does not elaborate on techniques of fighting, but there are passsages that deal with how shillelaghs were treated and hardened for use. Carleton's intention was to write good uniquely Irish tales about great clan fights, and to show the Irish spirit. This book shows all of this.

Before you see Martin Scorcese's film 'Gangs Of New York', read John W. Hurley's book 'Irish Gangs And Stick-Fighting'. Scorcese's film is based on the first half of the book'The Gangs Of New York' which deals exclusively with Irish gangs. And while it's flashy and exotic, there isn't much substance in the original book; it doesn't explain the traditions of the Irish gangs or the famous Irish shillelagh, it simply describes them in a sensational way. Hurley's book remedies this problem. It provides first hand accounts of Irish gangs and fights, written by a 'reformed' Irish stick-fighter, and vividly describes Ireland's fighting culture which was goverened by a code of honour which Hurley rightly calls 'Shillelagh Law'. If you are Irish or have an interest in Irish gangs, Irish boxing, the shillelagh, or Scorcese's film, you will really enjoy this book - I highly recommend it.