The Heroic Feats

No description of Irish martial arts would be complete without talking about the Heroic Feats! These were awe-inspiring skills and legendary abilities possessed by Irish heroes of old, as recounted in the mythohistories. The hero-feats of Cú Chulainn are perhaps the best recorded so we will mostly focus on them, but there are others, such as the trials that had to be overcome in order to join the Fianna.

Information about these feats is drawn from various sources, but leans primarily on The role of Cú Chulainn in Old and Middle Irish narrative literature with particular reference to tales belonging to the Ulster Cycle, by Mary Leenane, B.A.
https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/7731/1/Mary%20Leenane%20Phd%202%20Vols%20Single%20file.pdf

The Uballchless

The uballchless was the apple or ball feat, although it could apply to any missile, sling stone, round or globular object. Usually this involved juggling nine of these “feat-apples”, one of which was thrown at a nearby enemy, taking them by surprise. Such a stone is thrown at Cúr, perforating his shield, before lodging in his head.

Trisgatal is also described as throwing the uballchless in Mesca Ulad, where the uball is a large pillar-stone which was passed or juggled from one finger to another prior to being launched. Tulchinne Druith similarly juggles nine swords, nine shields and nine apples of gold.

The Torannchless

This was the feared thunderfeat. These feats seem to have involved using a sling from a chariot, inflicting huge losses on the enemy. The feat probably derived its name from the thunderous crack the sling made when being used.

The great thunderfeats of Lóch mac Mo Femis and Cú Chulainn scare herds of cattle eastwards and thunderous noise from Connlae’s sling shot upends Conall Cernach in Aided Óenfir Aífe.

The Fóebarchless

The edge-feat involved catching the points of enemy swords and spears on the sharpened edge of a horizontally-held shield, breaking them, and catching the points of swords with the hands.

The Fóenchless

Called the “prostrate or sloped feat”, it used the sharpened edge of a horizontally held shield as a weapon, along with a sword.

The Cless Cleitinech

This feat involved whirling and flicking javelins around while standing on a tightrope, the “javelin-feat” was a demonstration of balance and dexterity.

The Tétchless

The performance of acrobatics on a rope, as well as knot typing, binding enemies and various rope tricks.

The Corpchless

The twisting and contorting of the body into various forms, the “body-feat”.

The Ích n-Erred

The infamous salmon leap, which Cú Chulainn used to his advantage in many situations, both to escape from trouble and to attack. Descriptions of the feat indicate the remarkable heights and distances that were achieved with it. It imitated a salmon’s leap while travelling upstream .

The Cor nDeled

The feat of the throwing of spears, poles or pillars to strike any target with deadly accuracy.

The Éimm tar Ném

Leaping over and running through poisonous thorns without taking a scratch.

The Filliud Erred Náir

Running beneath a low obstacle, a sword or spear-thrust, or ducking low under a horse while riding it.

The Baí Braisse

A burst of great speed, the “profit of quickness”, dodging through enemy lines.

The Rothchless

The “wheel feat” is described in in Fled Bricrenn where it is practised by a number of youths before the arrival of the three great Ulster warriors, Lóegaire, Conall and Cú Chulainn.

A wheel-shaped object or an actual wheel is hurled into the air by each of them. More skilled than his peers, Cú Chulainn catches it in mid-air before throwing it higher than the others to knock out the ridge-pole of the house.

Descriptions of similar feats survive from the earliest Tailteann Games, and may have developed into the hammer throw at the modern Highland Games.

The Ocharchless

As described earlier, this “rim feat” involved throwing either a sharpened disc or a round shield with a sharpened edge. This may well be connected to strange, polished disc-shaped stones in Neolithic sites, which varied in size from about 3cm to 12cm across.

During the fight between Cú Chulainn and Fer DIad it was written that “Bocanachs and Bananachs and the witches of the valley screamed from the rims of their shields”, which may be a reference to the near-supersonic speed at which the shields were being slung about and thrown by the two mighty warriors.

The Cless for Análaib

The “breathing-feat” or feat of breath, keeping golden apples suspended in the air with just the breath.

The Sian Curad

The “feat of the bruising shout”. The síregém or “long-lasting cry/roar”, equalling that of on hundred warriors, emitted from Cú Chulainn’s battle helmet. When he was unable to reach a battle in time, Cú Chulainn emits a far reaching loud cry which Fergus instantly recognises as his.

“Is it the sky that cracks, or the sea that overflows its boundaries, or the earth that splits, or is it the loud cry of my son fighting against odds?”

The Éimm fo Chomus

The “stroke of precision”, a precise sword blow used in one instance to shave an enemy’s head.

The Fóidbeimm

The “feat of cutting sods”, having your sword sharp enough to cleave through the earth itself. Similar to lead-cutting displays used in the 19th century to demonstrate the sharpness of blades. The related múadalbéim strike on the crown split an enemy down to his navel.

The Taithbéimm

The throwing and returning of hunting sticks. These have been used by every culture on earth to hunt birds and small animals, and were sometimes shaped to return either to the hand of the user, or to arc back upon birds in flight, like a hawk.

It is also used to describe a sword stroke, perhaps from a thrown sword.

The dréim fri fogaist co ndírgiud crette fora rind co fornaidmaim níad náir

The “feat of climbing up a spear, standing on its point, and spinning around”, this was used both to entertain and to deliver fearsome blows. It was a somersaulting vault over a spear planted in the ground or thrust down by the vaulter, the hands held near the point of the spear which was turned down’ and may have been a continuous movement or there might have been a pause when the body was inverted over the spear.

This feat is described more fully in Foghlaim Con Culainn. It is performed by Dordmair, the daughter of Domnall. Driving the shaft of a five-pronged spear into the ground, she ‘jumped nimbly up and descended on the point of the spear until her bosom lay on the pointed prongs’ of it, whereupon she stayed for a considerable length of time without even ruffling her clothes.

This may also have been used to leap upon spears in flight, driving them into the ground, and then stepping up them to their tops.

The Carpat Serrdae

The fearsome "feat of the sickle chariot", a combination of different techniques meant to take advantage of the most powerful battlefield weapon of the time, the sickle chariot. These swift moving chariots were studded with an array of sharp, lacerating points with a structure particularly suited for the performance of great feats.

The Dallchless n-Éoin

The blind-feat of the bird, where the hero is blindfolded and then must catch small birds using only their hands. Intended to demonstrate an ability to act in perfect darkness.

The Siaburcles

The “ghost or sprite feat”, by which feat the hero became invisible, or very hard to see. This was also used on chariots and horses.

The Gáe Bulg

The “feat of the Gáe Bulg” refers to the multi-barbed spear referenced earlier in this guide. Although there has been some controversy about the exact translation of the term, with different academics suggesting “the bellows dart” and the “the dart of belly”, “bag spear”, “of the twofold spear”, and “the spear of the goddess Bolg”, only one seems consonant with witness accounts from the era— Meyer’s interpretation as “the gapped spear”.
 
This ferocious spear was described as entering the body as a single barb, creating one entrance wound, before multiplying into twenty-four or thirty. Then the victim’s flesh had to be cut from it in order to extract it from their body. On top of which, it may have been poisoned.

Cú Chulainn uses this weapon by throwing it up from underwater using his toes in a semi-ritualistic fashion, although in Fled Bricrenn ocus Loinges mac nDuíl Dermait, Cú Chulainn throws it upwards
before it comes down on Eochaid Glas’s head, piercing his body until it reaches the ground.

Fer Diad wore an apron of iron and huge stone breastplate as armour against it, to no avail.

The Ríastrad

The Ríastrad was a battle frenzy, perhaps something similar to the Haka war dance or legends of Scandinavian warriors going berserk. It is described as follows:

“The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream.

His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front...

On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child...

He sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek.

His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat...

The hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thornbush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage.”

In other sources this feat is described in less graphic terms, but still mentioning severe bodily distortions, such that a grown man could put a foot between each of his ribs.

This feat is depicted many times in the Sláine series of graphic novels.

Others

There are countless other feats lists in the mythohistories, some clearly explained, many known only by name. The feat of fighting underwater, the feat of the crooked revenge, the feat of tying up warriors using the point of a spear, the feat of the stunning shot, and many others.

A great deal of Irish lore remains half-hidden and unresearched, so readers are encouraged to go and investigate—and perhaps even experiment!—for themselves.

Chapter List (click to read):

1. Foreword
2 The Irish Language
3. Reading
4. Making and Shaping
5. The Physical Gael
6. The Warrior Gael
- The Crios Belt
- Open Hand Traditions
- Collar and Elbow Wrestling
- Gaelic Weapons
- Seanbhata
- Seanbhata Basics
- Seanbhata Guards
- Seanbhata Strikes and Blocks
- Seanbhata Close Fighting
- The Heroic Feats
7. Tradition and Culture
8. Organisation