![]() You’ll have to be mighty careful, however, when you start to gather your raw shillelagh material, because all of the 100-plus species of North American hawthorn are armed with thorns that grow anywhere from one to five inches long. Today the shillelagh is a symbolic souvenir of the Irish spirit, and–according to New York City’s largest cane shop–the Gaelic cudgel is one of the best-selling (at prices from $30.00 to $37.50 each! ) types of walking stick. In later years, as more peaceful pursuits prevailed, the traditional club was used primarily as a walking staff, or as a stick to herd cattle. When the British invaded the Emerald Isle, they not only chopped down the great oak forests (which had been considered sacred by the Druids) and shipped off the timber to England, but also imposed strict laws, one of which was a ban on weapons.Īfter that, shillelaghs–far from disappearing along with the oak–simply began to be made from the wood of the Irish blackthorn (a species of hawthorn), and the innocent-appearing “canes” became the Irish resisters’ main weapon in their continuing struggle against the conquerors. Sometimes, however, an extremely strong man would use two shillelaghs: one to fend off attacks, and the other to bash his opponent. On such occasions the shillelagh was seldom swung with just one hand, but grasped in the middle with both fists and brought down with head-splitting force. The traditional walking stick’s name comes from an old Gaelic word meaning “oak club.” Centuries ago these weapons were made of oak, cut from a great forest near the village of Shillelagh in County Wicklow.īefore the eighth century, the sturdy bludgeons were used to settle old family feuds at village fairs (or at least to solve the problem until the next fair was held). In fact, the sturdy, gnarled hardwood wallopers (which the Celts have carried–as canes or weapons–since the days of the legendary Irish giant, Finn MacCool) are really pretty easy to craft. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.You don’t have to be Irish to know how to make a shillelagh (pronounced shih-LAY-lee or shih-LAY-lah). If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. GFDL GNU Free Documentation License true true A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. ![]() CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 true true share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ![]() attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
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