Title: Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth Century Ireland
Author: Ben Miller
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 483
Price: $34.95 (Hardcover)/$23.95 (Softcover)
In the interests of transparency, I was given this book for review purposes.
HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) has an unusual place in the minds of many of us that practice traditional (Eastern) martial arts. It fits the bill for every definition of martial arts that I’ve used or seen, but to our eyes, it doesn’t have that right feel. And that may be due to our own biases. If you’re interested in starting to learn about the men who actually fenced and dueled with swords, then there isn’t a much better place to start.
Content
Many of the different regions of Europe have had their martial history explored through continuous practice or through the re-creation of manuscripts. Ben Miller is by my account, a martial artist and historian. I interviewed him for his previous book, which you can listen to HERE.
He’s delved into a little-known area of martial arts history, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. In many of the other accounts from the times, the Germans, the English, the Spanish, all commented on how Ireland was full of duelists of skill and repute, but there has never been an account of those people and their methods…until now. This book goes through the written and illustrated histories to pull out stories of Irish duelists and fencers and tell their tales. It also includes the only known Irish Fencing Treatise “A Few Mathematical and Critical Remarks on the Sword.” The author of which is still unknown, though there are a couple hypotheses.
Pros
I think the strength of this book is two-fold. First, the storytelling gives you the feeling of the lives and times of these people. Each chapter in the first half of the book is dedicated to a specific individual. Even if you’re not interested in the fencing/dueling aspect, the stories here are worth the price of admission. They all have such interesting stories, that my Dad, who isn’t into martial arts at all, but is proud of his Irish heritage read it, and enjoyed it. The second aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the artwork. In each section of the book, there are great pictures, rare engravings, and even old newspaper pages. These add to the story and enhance the experience. Mr. Miller did a great job putting this one together.
Cons
The only negative criticism I would give Mr. Miller’s book would be its specificity. I love reading into the nitty-gritty details about specific places and times in history, but I understand that 18th Century Ireland’s fencing and dueling history may be too specific for some people.
Conclusion
If you’ve read any of my reviews on martial arts books, you know I have three categories that I compile to give a book it’s overall rating. The first is how well is the book written. Is it enjoyable to read? This book, with its interesting stories and real-life characters fits both bills nicely.
The second criteria is the pictures. Most (if not all) martial arts books have pictures. For many years, these were not done in the best quality, or printed in the best possible way. However, technology has allowed authors and publishers to improve that aspect of martial arts books.
The third category I rank books on is their overall usefulness to all martial artists. Many books are written for specific audiences. It could be practitioners of a specific art, or it could be a larger more philosophical context. As I said earlier, this is where this book has its fault. The book is written well, it’s interesting, and I loved the pictures and illustrations. However, except in a historical, or Irish pride kind of way, I don’t know how useful this book would be to someone practicing karate. There would be little they could glean from these pages to help their specific practice.
It is for that reason, that I’m going to give this book only 4 out of 5 Ninja Stars. I really enjoyed the book, and I think if you’re a HEMA martial artist, or even in any kind of sword-based martial art, this could add to your art. If you’re just interested in how martial arts and history interact then, by all means, go get this book and enjoy!
Martial Thoughts Podcast has an interview with Ben Miller about Irish Swordsmanship. Listen to it HERE.
- Review of The Ankō Itosu Biography - September 13, 2021
- Suparinpei-The Last Kata of Goju-Ryu Karate - July 12, 2021
- Swords Are Cool…That’s All I’ve Got - March 4, 2021
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