Knobstick

dublinviking

A knobstick is a wooden walking stick which have a knob for a handle. Hence the name The stick is commonly the length of a walking stick (distance from the floor to one's wrist with elbow slightly bent).

A knobstick can also be used as a club or a cudgel. The heavy knob can be used for striking as well as parrying and disarming an opponent. The use of knobsticks as weapons has a particularly long tradition in Ireland where it was known as shillelagh and was used for a common Irish pastime called "faction fighting". Irish faction fights involved large groups of men (and sometimes women) who engaged in melees at county fairs, weddings, funerals, or any other convenient gathering. Historians such as Carolyn Conley, believe that this reflected a culture of recreational violence. Two or more groups assembled to fight using mostly rocks and sticks, very often resulting in the death of many participants. Interestingly even though it caused death, the practice of faction fighting was considered good fun and in fact people brought to justice for killing people in faction fights were often exonerated. The faction fighting was eventually replaced by hurling. No wander hurling was once described as 'hockey mixed with murder'...

What is also interesting is that the knobstick also has a long tradition among the Slavs, particularly in the Balkans, where it was not only used as a weapon but also as a symbol of power held by the tribal elders. And what is even more interesting, the two most commonly used words for knobstick in Serbian are the same words used for penis in Celtic languages...

Interested?

You can read more here:

http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2015/05/knobstick.html

FluffyAngel

really enjoyed reading the blog and all it contained ..

if your ever in kerry , try to get to bonane,some of your answers re stone circles etc etc could lie within the knowledge of the park

http://www.bonaneheritagepark.com/