Shillelagh (weapon)

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A shillelagh (pronounced sha-lei-lee) is a wooden club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob on the end, that is associated with Ireland in folklore. They are traditionally made from blackthorn (sloe) wood (Prunus spinosa) or oak. It was named after the Shillelagh forest in County Wicklow, a forest of oak which produced some fine examples. The wood would be smeared with butter and placed up a chimney to cure, giving the Shillelagh its typical black shiny appearance. Shillelaghs may be hollowed at the heavy "hitting" end and filled with molten lead to increase the weight beyond the typical two pounds; this sort of Shillelagh is known as a 'loaded stick'. They are commonly the length of a walking stick (distance from the floor to one's wrist with elbow slightly bent). Most also have a heavy knob for a handle which can be used for striking as well as parrying and disarming an opponent. Many shillelaghs also have a strap attached, similar to commercially made walking sticks, to place around the holder's wrist.

Methods of Shillelagh fighting have evolved over a period of thousands of years, from the spear, staff, axe and sword fighting of the Irish. There is some evidence which suggests that the use of Irish stick weapons may have evolved in a progression from a reliance on long spears and wattles, to shorter spears and wattles, to the shillelagh, alpeen, blackthorn (walking-stick) and short cudgel. By the 19th century Irish Shillelagh-fighting had evolved into a practice which involved the use of three basic types of weapons, sticks which were long, medium or short in length.

Although originally used for settling disputes in a gentlemanly manner, (like pistols in colonial America, or the katana in Japan), the shillelagh became almost a weapon associated with Irish martial arts, and eventually became a symbol of stereotypical violent Irish behavior, and has thus become nearly a tabooed topic of discussion for many Irish people.

[edit] Shillelagh in popular culture

In the folk song "Finnegan's Wake", shillelagh law refers to a brawl.
There was a popular song, "The Same Old Shillelagh", recorded by several Irish-American singers in the 1940s, including Bing Crosby and Billy Murray, about such a weapon being passed along from father to son.
Another song by the group House of Pain titled, "Top of the Mornin' to Ya" references a Shillelagh in the verse "If you try to take it, I got a big shillelagh"
X-Men villain Black Tom Cassidy was portrayed to wield a shillelagh both as a club and, with his mutant power, he could generate destructive concussive force through the wooden stick.
Professional wrestler for the WWE and Northern Ireland native Finlay uses a shillelagh as his signature illegal weapon.
In Kingdom of Loathing, there exists the stainless steel shillelagh, which is consided to be one of the strongest weapons in the game.
In the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, a spell named Shillelagh grants any nonmagical staff or club an enhancement bonus for attacking.
In the movie Gangs of New York, the charactor Walter "Monk" McGinn uses a Shillelagh durring the fight between the 'American Natives' and the 'Dead Rabbits' with fourty notches, signifying his fourty kills.
In the Brainswitch episode of Sealab 2021, a shillelagh is used in the closing credits as the weapon of choice for the character Captain Murphy in his MMORPG Knights of Necropolis.