Irish Collar-and-elbow wrestling (Irish: Coiléar agus Uille or Brollaidheacht) is a martial art and form of jacket wrestling native to Ireland. Historically it has also been practised in regions of the world with large Irish diaspora populations, such as the United States and Australia.
The term ‘Elbow-Collar’ or ‘Elbow-and-Collar’ Wrestling was not exclusively used as a name for Irish Wrestling. The term was also known across the British Isles, where it was practiced in at least two other places: ‘Devonshire Wrestling’, and ‘Norfolk Wrestling’. Collectively, they are known as the British Outplay styles of Wrestling, which were defined by standing outside of range and used kicking and tripping.
History
Origins in Ireland Wrestling as a competitive sport has been recorded in Ireland as far back as the second millennium BC, when it featured as one of the many athletic contests held during the annual Tailteann Games. The mythical hero Cúchulainn boasted of his prowess in both hurling and wrestling, and was on one occasion enraged by an undead spectre mockingly suggesting that his skill in the latter area had been highly exaggerated.Sayers, William. "The Motif of Wrestling in Early Irish and Mongolian Epic". Mongolian Studies, vol. 13, 1990, pp. 153–168 Carved depictions of two figures in a recognisable wrestling clinch appear on the Market High Cross of KellsAllen, J. Romilly. Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland before the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2016, p. 235 and the ruins of a church at Kilteel (both 9th century AD), and wrestling matches were common features of country fairs until at least the 18th century.Moffet, William. Hesperi-Neso-Graphia: or, A description of the Western Isle in Eight Cantos. Carson and Smith, 1724, pp. 31–32
These wrestling contests were occasionally violent affairs. Participants could be and were frequently injured, sometimes fatally so, as in the case of a contest between one Thomas Costello (known locally as "Tumaus Loidher" – Thomas the Strong) and an unnamed champion in which Costello ostensibly squeezed on his opponent's harness so powerfully that it broke the man's spine. There appear to have been little or no attempts to moderate these violent aspects of wrestling from a legal point of view; as historian Edward MacLysaght noted in his account of the match, as the participant in a sporting contest Costello had little to fear in terms of official retribution.MacLysaght, Edward. Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century. Irish Academic Press, 1979. pp. 151-152. "The victor had, of course, no fear of immediate arrest to answer a charge of manslaughter, but found himself a popular hero."
These accounts of early Irish wrestling matches all describe participants taking a diverse range of grips on their opponents – from clutching at any available limb in the time of Cúchulainn, to a backhold-style clinch on the carvings at Kells and Kilteel, to both hands holding a belt in the match between Thomas Costello and his ill-fated opponent. However, by the 18th century a new form of grip had established itself as the favoured hold: right hand grabbing the opponent's collar, left hand grabbing the sleeve of their jacket at the elbow. This position, and all its associated techniques and strategies, was to quickly emerge as the dominant framework under which Irish wrestling matches were contested.
Brollaidheacht in Ireland In the 19th century, Brollaidheacht was one of the most widely practised sporting activities in the country – "the chief physical sport of the male population from childhood to mature manhood". Bouts took place between local champions and challengers on a parish level, and those between the most well-known and skilled wrestlers could draw thousands of spectators from across neighbouring counties. Although it was primarily referred to by its English name, Collar and Elbow is known to have had at least two names in Irish: "Coiléar agus Uille" (a literal translation of Collar and Elbow) and "brollaidheacht". The latter derives from the term for the front of a shirt ("brollach léine") and thus "brollaidheacht" could be translated as "collaring" – a reference to the grip that wrestlers were required to take on each other's jackets.
Victory was determined by a "fall", the definition of which differed from county to county. In Kildare a wrestler was deemed to have won if he made his opponent touch the ground with any single part of his body above the knees, whereas in Dublin he was required to make three points of his opponent's body touch the ground (usually both shoulders and a hip, or both hips and a shoulder).Gunning, Paul Ignatius. Hardy Fingallians, Kildare Trippers, and 'The Divil Ye'll Rise' Scufflers: Wrestling in Modern Ireland. A Social and Cultural History of Sport in Ireland, 2016, pp. 110–121. A significant difference between Collar and Elbow as it was practised in Ireland and the United States is that, in its Irish incarnation, shin-kicking was routinely permitted. This, coupled with the fact that many participants wore heavy work boots, resulted in a level of injury among Irish wrestlers not usually seen among their US counterparts. Shins were frequently "gored and/or bruised" after a match, and on rare occasions outright broken.
Admirers of the style nonetheless lauded its "eminently scientific and picturesque" virtues. In particular, they claimed that, since the opening stance prevented the "bull-like charges, flying tackles, or other onrushes" common in other wrestling styles, Brollaidheacht encouraged participants to develop "deftness, balance, and leverage allied with strength, [which permitted] a man to win by means of skill instead of sheer might and weight".
Brollaidheacht in the United States As levels of Irish emigration to the United States steadily increased throughout the 17th–19th centuries, so too did the presence of the Irish cultural traditions they brought with them – including their wrestling style. New England in general, and Vermont in particular, emerged as an early stronghold of Collar and Elbow after it had been introduced by immigrants largely from County Kildare. During the US Civil War, Vermont regiments introduced the style to other units in the Army of the Potomac, and in that way it acquired immense popularity among men from other regions of the United States who might otherwise never have encountered it. By the time the Civil War ended, Collar and Elbow had emerged as one of the most common rulesets under which wrestling bouts were contested nationwide.
Bouts drew large and enthusiastic crowds across the country, and purses of several hundred dollars were routinely offered for championship contests.The Cincinnati Enquirer, 1 June 1878, p. 4. "The wrestling match for $500 and the championship of America, between Edward Cox of Fairfield, Vt., and Henry M. Dufur of Marlboro, the champion of New England, took place at Riverside Park."The Boston Globe, 12 June 1879, p. 4. "The long-anticipated struggle between James E. Owens of Vermont and H.M. Dufur of Marlboro at collar-and-elbow wrestling. Ed James' rules to govern, best two in three, fair falls, for $500 and the championship, drew an audience at the Howard Athenaeum, last evening, that packed the house."Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 23 November 1897, p. 5. "Two best falls out of three to decide the contest for the World's Championship and $1000, which is now in the hands of W.E. Stevens, proprietor of Hotel Stevens, Seattle." Vermont continued to remain a significant force in the Collar and Elbow world throughout, with two of the style's most notable 19th-century practitioners, Henry Moses Dufur and John McMahon, hailing from Franklin County. Practitioners of Collar and Elbow in general were colloquially referred to as "scufflers" (occasionally "trippers" in reference to the leg-centric strategies they employed), and a Collar and Elbow bout itself as "scuffling" or a "scuffling bee".Beekman, Scott. Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America. Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2006. p. 10
Rules Initially, Collar and Elbow bouts in both Ireland and the United States were governed by unwritten, often improvised codes of conduct rather than any kind of codified rules. Irish historian Edward MacLysaght recorded as early as the 1600s that rules for Collar and Elbow in Ireland varied widely by region and often were finalized shortly before two Scufflers would wrestle. An early attempt to standardise the competitive rules of the style was made in advance of a tournament that was scheduled to be held in St. Albans, Vermont in 1856. The tournament was ultimately cancelled due to "an epidemic of disease" in the region, however, and no record of the proposed ruleset exists. It was almost two decades later before the first widely accepted set of rules was published in America. These were compiled by American Collar and Elbow champion Henry Moses Dufur, and as such came to be colloquially known as the Dufur Rules. Among other things, they stated that wrestlers had to compete while wearing a suitably sturdy jacket, and banned the wearing of heavy footwear.
A book by Charles Wilson, The Magnificent Scufflers, cited Collar and Elbower Ed Decker (who learned and trained with Irish-American and world collar and elbow champion John McMahon), as stating that the grip was broken to execute technique, as well as incorporating from Side-Hold Wrestling techniques. It furthers elaborated that it was at times called "Square Hold", "Box Wrestling", "Old Folk Style" (in some regions of America) or "New Gouren". The book further cited Art Griffith, assistant coach to Ed C. Gallagher, in stating that Collar and Elbow was influential to Gallagher developing his own method style of wrestling more focused on unbalancing rather than explosive power or speed.
The Dufur rules were closely followed by the Ed James rules in America, published as part of a general manual of sporting rules and regulations in 1873. These were largely the same as the Dufur rules, and specified the clear conditions for victory – a wrestler had to throw his opponent flat on his back, similar to the concept of ippon in judo. The Ed James rules were to act as the agreed-upon standard for the majority of Collar and Elbow bouts held in the United States during its 19th-century heyday:
Even in so-called "mixed wrestling" bouts where men would compete against each other in consecutive rounds under different rulesets (e.g. Catch-as-Catch-Can, Greco-Roman, and Collar and Elbow), they would specifically be required to don jackets for the Collar and Elbow rounds.The Cincinnati Enquirer, 25 March 1884, "Duncan Ross Again Defeats Colonel McLaughlin in a Mixed Wrestling Match in Cleveland", p. 2.The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 March 1885, "Wrestling Championship" p. 5.
Jackets and Harness Although there are accounts of bouts being held in which the combatants were shirtless – particularly in rural areas during the summer months – in its standardised competitive form Brollaidheacht required both participants to wear jackets or heavy shirts that could be gripped and used to set up throwing techniques. A similar requirement exists in other Celtic styles like Cornish wrestling and Breton Gouren. At wrestling events in Dublin, a common method of issuing a challenge was to place a jacket in the centre of the ring and wait for a contender to step in and put it on.