How To Make A Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow, Ireland 1986 

The essence of Irish conversation. Two old fellas having a chat over a gate...but not necessarily about the same subject.

😂😂 "Any hardwood providing it's blackthorn or oak"

In 1903 my great grandfather came to Boston on the Carpathia on it's maiden voyage. He brought with him among other things his grandfather's Shillelagh. 60 years later he died and my grandmother ended up with it. My uncle used it as sort of a drum major's baton in the St. Patrick's day parade in Boston for a few years. But my grandmother kept custody of it. When she died in 2000 it ended up with my mother and when she died I ended up with it. According to my grandmother it was nearly 100 years old when it was brought to America. That would make it over 200 years old. My great grandfather, two uncles and my brother have all used it for the purpose for which it was intended. I have used it once to explain to a burglar why he should make better choices in life.

Irish country folk, to the auto subtitles: "you have no power here"

"When all you have is a Shillelagh, everything looks like a protestant."

Came for the Shillelagh, stayed for the pocket hoking.

Back when a Wicklow regional accent still existed as a seperate entity to Dublin accents. RIP traditional Wicklow and Kildare accents. May the rest of Irelands regional accents hold strong and may they all have increased representation on our national television and radio broadcasting. Amen.

A proud Irish man practising an old tradition. Simply lovely.😊

That man has more in his pockets than Bilbo Bagins, he does.

My dad use to have a shillelagh and I remember I use to want to take it out of his room so he told me he stole it from an old mans grave and some nights a banshee would come looking for it so I left it alone for sure

Lads. Where did we go wrong. Two men talking over a gate about everything but the subject. This is pure class. This is television.

"Any hardwood, providing it's blackthorn or oak", is like saying "Any hard liquor, providing it's whiskey or rye."

their interpersonal interactions are simply amazing, the quips, the looking away into the distance, it's really a character study.

Tellin a story on telly and rootin through his pockets pullin out bills! 🤣

When a trusty Shillelagh came over their heads, and bad them take that as fair warning!

The best are made from blackthorn, you sand them, clean them and then you coat them in butter and smoke them in the chimney breast. To finish it off, hollow out the end to fill with hot lead. Once the lead's set and you give it a polish, you'll have a shillelagh as black as soot and can shatter a man's arm in one swing.

What a lovely old timer. And he really knew his shillelaghs, though you don’t tend to see those hammer style ones these days thankfully. The knob sticks though, and the club shillelaghs of today, are real class. Dried and made properly by McCaffrey and other great makers. Proper sticks.

It feels so fuckin good to be able to understand every word of this. Bein a culchie comes in handy sometimes

My uncle in Kildare was set upon one night when he was walking home. He ran to get his stick and went back and took them all on. Its still hanging in his house today.

i;ve got a long thick blackthorn seasoned out my back garden. been waiting there for about 6 years. its like steel.

They say he carved it from a slightly bigger stick....

Makes me proud to be Irish and my heritage

My Grandad had a shillelagh he bought with him from Ireland when he settled in London many years ago. It used to be an object of fascination for me when I was little. When he died my nan kept it but it never left the corner of the living room of the Peckham flat where they lived. When she eventually passed, no one could find that shillelagh anywhere. It was simply gone. Meeting me, I seem as South London as they come. I've never even visited Cork, where my grandad came from. I wish I had that shillelagh, it was a physical link to my Irish ancestry. I was raised an Englishman but my roots are of Irish Blackthorn.

I keep coming back to this. It matters little what they talk about, but what a treat just to hear them chat.

My dad makes them, l never asked him why, he sees a good piece of wood and he makes them, he's 74 now and has a collection of these and walking sticks.

What a treasure trove of videos you have, thanks as always CR.

Had me in tears laughing. Reminds me of my little Irish mum. God bless her.

I love the look on his face, when the Reporter says the thing he has dedicated his life too, that his town is named after, actually gives the entire Nation of Ireland, a bad reputation! He’s like “ Yer tellin’ me this on Live Telly, ya bastard?”

This is one of the most interesting interviews I’ve ever seen.

Did I hear that right: "I am old... I'm almost 60." T hat sent a shiver down my spine, I just turned 62.

My family owned a few irish pubs in Phillidelphia and New Jersey. You'd see these lined up on the walls of the bar to bring a piece of the old world back to the pub. We'd come over to Ireland and buy one. We'd like the look of and hang it up with the other dozen. It didn't give us a bad name at all. Our tempers and pride did that enough on its own

"Boys oh boys" ( Frank Kelly) rip Loved "Halls pictorial weekly" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent video👌

When he picked his pocket he just wanted to make sure the one ring was still there

....brought a smile to my face when he mentioned they weren't eating enough 'stir about' 1:14 My Granny used to make it when we were kids years ago..still no Idea what it was, bread and soup mixed up I think.

I still have the ones my grandfather made me. I always walk the trails with one

I didn’t understand a word of this... 10/10

I got a foreign language credit for listening to this. What a great vid!

He politely corrected'em when he asked about his own personal stick and how it correlated with an offensive weapon lol

What a great video. I'd love to meet this guy but sadly he must have passed long ago. Legend.

I have a surplus of American hornbeam on my property so I’m going to have a try with that. It is also known as ironwood or muscle wood so I think it may suffice

The two Ronnie's sketch is actually accurate

The man being interviewed shows his amused disdain for the interviewer all over his face.

I have one my dad got in Ireland when he was in the navy in the late 50's.

I have one ,an I love it ,regards to you all, from Australia.

My great grandmother came from Ireland an she had a shillelagh that was a family heir loom. When she got older she gave the shillelagh to my grandmother an my grandmother became friends with an Irish catholic priest Mr. Burke. He use to visit my grandparents for tea my grandmother gave him our shillelagh to Mr Burke. When years later Mr Burke got old an passed away he was buried with our shillelagh. I told my mom, go dig up Mr Burke an get our shillelagh back. If we still had that shillelagh it would be well over 100 years old, maybe older

While I've been clearing my old cottage, I've cut plenty of blackthorn and am looking forward to making a few shillelaghs in a few years once it's seasoned

I have one by the front door, that I inherited, it was in the house when I was growing up and when I was on my own it made me feel somewhat safer.

After 5 mins of crying this made me feel a lot better

I've just seen the date ! We'd be to late to find him and welcome him into our home , what a character and what a pocket!

"What's the raw material?" "Any hardwood as long as it's blackthorn or oak." "What's that?" "That is a holly." I love this man.

Yer man given the interview shows little respect! And belittling the traditional ways of Ireland, I fancy he's a liberalism advocate!!!! God bless Ireland. Erin Go brah☘️🇮🇪

Thank you so much for these beautiful wee films.

Traditionally, they would be covered in butter, and put in the eve of a open chimney for a winter to season.

Its a good weapon to fight off Father O'Donnel's late night advances

I enjoyed this video, but it needs subtitles. I can only catch a few words of what the dear man is saying. My husband and I love watching modern-day Irish films, but always have to turn on the subtitles. His grandmother, by the way, was the child of Irish immigrants, and literally died with a shillelagh within reach from her bed.

Lovely auld fella. I have a found piece of wood the same as his holly stick there, i was wondering what to do with it (normally I carve spoons etc) so one shillelagh coming up!

Ah, poor Frank Hall. From Newry. That is a face from the past

ALTERNATIVE TITLE : old irish man struggles to pull something out of his jackets front pocked for 2 minutes straight

I brought one back from Ireland a couple of years ago, my 2 year old grand daughter loves walking with it and pretending she is an old woman.

When I was a very young little boy I went to live with my dear grandmother for 4 or so years, Many years later after returning from a foreign land with my brother we visited and stayed with our dear Grandmother for a few days I explained to my grandmother that we were going to tour around a little and live in our double wheel green transit van that we had bought from the most brilliant rock group Kimberley biscuits also 2 large wafer ice creams as we were about to leave the shop Joe recognised us from the time we went to school nearby, we explained that we were going to drive around a little, visit some relatives and use the van as our accommodation, Joe gave some advice and told us to take care and to watch out for Ruffins who might be around, he said you should have something to protect yourself in case you get challenged. We looked around the shop and bought 2 shovels, 2 spades, 2 billhooks, a left-handed and loaded them all into our van, Sometime later we finally found some use for those shoves and spades for some gardening work, we used the bill hooks for cutting back some wild bushes but the turf cutting never got used and is fixed to the underside of the ceiling in my office, in this far off land from Ireland

I have watched this all the way through and haven’t the slightest idea what was just discussed

"I'll take a Shellaligh to your head." Barron Ott O'Matic, The Irish Cheapstakes, Tom Slick.

"At a fair or a wake, I could twist my shillelagh..."

Being from Flanders I'm having a hard time understanding these 2 gentlemen but I find it simply fascinating. Looks like the presenter dyed his hair for the occasion..ATB

The man in beret has such a great face and great way of talking.

Am I the only one here thinking that gate is a piece of art?

How insulting for him to suggest to a simple man just trying to make a living that, "selling Shillelagh's to tourists" makes the Irish look like a, "Terrible collection of Paddys".

Very nice video. Had such chats over the fence at ireland for myself. Just ask for the way i thought. Half hour later i know so much but everything excluding the way. God bless Eire.

Bought my shillelagh at Blarney Castle over 60 years ago, still have it,cost 8/6 ( 42 1/2 P. )

i got one with the rounded clubhead like the ones at 3:09. i'll tell you what, teddy roosevelt once said "speak softly and carry a big stick", and that blackthorn speaks louder than i do for sure.

What a different interview, thanks for the culture from Ireland! Now I want one.

There's something to said about a handy, study stick, that's capable of convincing a rascal he should be elsewhere. God Bless the Irish.

Most of those sticks look more like Polo sticks! Remember asking Irish chap the best time (of the year) to cut ash for hurling sticks…….”When you see it.” was the reply 🙂

Excellent video loving the crack wish there were more videos love Francis McCaffertys work also on this front 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Could someone please caption this in English? I'm American and I can tell the interviewer is using some English words when he's asking questions, but I only recognize about half of them and I can't meter out what he's asking. I have no idea what language the elderly gentleman is speaking and auto-generated captions are just blank. I would love to know what these interesting men are saying. Thank you!

that was great to see... : ) plus the one difference the cops Shillelagh had(when they used them over 100 years ago) was the longer end at the top was angled downwards(the opposite way) so they could catch a fella behind the neck to give him a few clouts(punches) in the face.. (the interviewer at the start had one the old cops used) FACT!

Did anyone know that this is also a martial art native to Ireland?

As long as your stick is straight at the top and the bottom it doesn't matter too much about the wibbly wobbly bit in between from the Blackthorn which is an extension of my arm and my other leg, Me. Endearing delightful film real 'old' life so much more humorous than much of today's twaddle.

I'm loving the pure comedy of them barely explaining what the fuck a shilegleigh is, then telling us it's a weapon. It looks ridiculous, adding more hilarity since I'm now wondering how the fuck they use it to beat people with 😂

POV you just watched the Skallagrim video on blunt weapons and needed to see a video on shillelaghs

"Ut's hoard wurrk." "Is ut now?" "Aye occashunly hoard." I'm an O'Donnell myself. I think I met this man at Jack Meads in 1992. Actually I met a whole pubfull, and one was an elderly lady. She looked like Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs. Brown and she even sent me a Christmas card for a few years. Her name was Nancy (I'm not giving you her surname) and she was from Wexford.

Back in 1970 I was in Eire. Shillelaghs were sold as tourist items. Can you imagine that now......

0:43, i'm not sure but i think the only shillelaghs that were ever considered "offensive weapons" were the ones that had led inserted in a club handle. those ones were intended as weapons. but a standard shillelagh was generally a walking stick/carrying stick (for satchel) and potentially a defensive weapon. In RIC/British army hands, it was certainly a baton. if this guy wasn't so alone, would he have put up with an interviewer like this? he talks of offensive weapons but he had offensive manners.

I made one of those out of a dead spruce leader. Not a hardwood, but the hooked knot turns cinder blocks to rubble in no time.

Wonderful

Brilliant

Welp. I didn't learn how to make a shillelagh. But I had a good time.

Proper old school.Brutish sticks the old man makes. 👍

Good lord. Most of my old folks were from Tyrone. Omagh. They were very old when I was a lad. The other set was from Swansea. I'm a Celt from Alabama.

We called it a strolling stick, makes one hell of a fighting stick too....

💖 Love The Irish 🍀🍀🍀 x

They are a specialty item 4 sure Cool video..

I can't get over the interviewer's wig - it's a shocker!

Above all talkers, the Irish are my very favorite. I wish I could talk Irish without being locked in a mental institution lol it's so pleasant and hopeful sounding. Masters of the quip, as well. Just all in good fun.

I love this guy!

ah what a lovely aul fella he seems, i’m fond of the shillelagh myself. funny little part of our culture :)

As Alan Partridge would say "great banter"..

Nothing beats a good black torn stick aka the Bata stick it is where we get the expression I'll batar ya from.

Could be doing with one of them for me 🚶‍♂️. Love the auld lads banter.

I can see why the Yanks decided to name an anti-tank missile after this.