Fencing
in Ireland
Fencing has been included in the Olympic games since their modern day inception in 1896 and the sport formally came to Ireland ten years later in 1906 when the Irish Fencing club was founded in Dublin. It was not the first club in Ireland, but it was the first in which the principal aim was exercise and sport rather than duelling. The club closed in 1917, but was restarted again in 1933 following advertisements in Dublin newspapers.
This was followed in 1934 by the Cork Fencing club, renamed Club Palestrina in 1943, and the British Legion Fencing club in 1935. CLubs were lso formed in Blackrock college, Dublin University (1936, revived in 1940), Kilkenny (1942), Limerick Fencing Club (1944), Shannon Fencing club (1947), Cork County (1952), Clonmel (1954).
In 1936 the Irish Amateur Fencing Federation was set up as the governing body of the sport in Ireland and remains the sole governing body of the sport in Ireland today. In January 2008 the Irish Amateur Fencing Federation changed it's name to the Irish Fencing Federation.
Irish Times Notice 1933
 |
8th November 1933: Mr. F.C. Perrin took the chair at a meeting, which was held yesterday, at the Grosvenor Hotel, Dublin, for the purpose of forming a fencing club in Dublin. He said that Dublin was the only capital in Europe which was behind-hand in this respect, but it was never too late to make a beginning. After discussion, it was decided to call the new society the Irish Fencing Club (as a provisional title), and to seek recognition from the British and Irish Authorities. The following officers were provisionally appointed: - President, Sr. John Lumsden; Vice-Presidents, Mr. J. Crawford and Mr. H. E. de Courcy Wheeler; Hon. Secretaries, Mr. W. H. de Courcy Wheeler and Mr. F. C. Perrin; Committee. Messrs. Haig, Stafford ?nox and Campbell. (with thanks to the Foxe family of Clondalkin) |
Well-Known Irish Fencers
Alan Dukes (Captain of UCC Fencing Club), Peter O'Toole, William Butler Yeats (taught by Ezra Pound while Pound was employed as his secretary).