The Celtic Sword of Conn: The Fish-Head

There are many different styles of Celtic bare-knuckle-boxing. The one I know is from the Clan of Conn from Ballydavid Head. In New York City, this style is called Wes tie Wall-Fighting, and it's been modified from our old Conn Style (the main difference between our family style and the styles of other families, is that our style is a sloping system---it was developed to fight on the slopes of the hills and mountains of West Cork and Kerry against invaders) for the alleys and the air-shaft passageways of the City's tenements. It employs lots of difficult footwork, like leaps and hops and jumps. The actual techniques in the Conn style come from the usages of the sword. The swords that were used by my family are not the ones that are normally depicted as being Celtic. Those swords are fine weapons, but they are not the ones that my family used; usually those weapons are various modifications on Norse or Norman swords, which was a Viking weapon, or on various Teutonic and Germanic swords. The sword that my family used is called the fish-head or salmon-sword, and like its name, it is shaped like a fish swimming. It looks very much like the Iberian Falcata, except the hilt on the sword is not open. The hilt is entirely enclosed, so that the sword is gripped much like the lever on a lever-action Winchester rifle, four fingers on the inside with the backs of those fingers making contact, with the thumb on the outside. The reason for this particular grip is so that the sword can be shook when it makes any cut, rather than having to make a big swing with one's entire arm to achieve that same cutting action. This shaking action causes the sword to make a stabbing, as well as a cutting movement, with just a very small downward inclination of the elbow, rather than using the entire shoulder. The sword will literally leap forward, as an extension of the arm. This action is the whole basis for our style of bare-knuckle: three knuckles leap forward by a shaking of an elbow to knock on the enermy.