Bluebell Shoot 2025
It is now summer, which in Ireland means the weather likes to behave in more of a bipolar manner. Summer in Ireland is different from the other two seasons – I’m convinced we don’t really get Spring, just a mildish…
Category FREE ACCESS
A wealth of high-quality articles exploring Irish archery in all its richness—history, philosophy, ethics, technical insights, interviews, and rare profiles of exceptional figures. Featuring top writers, youth contributions, and cultural commentary, this is an open invitation to engage deeply with the spirit, stories, and subtleties of archery in Ireland—freely accessible to all who wish to read, reflect, and be part of the living tradition.
The Case for Greater Archery
This is an updated version of an article I published a few years ago, about how badly the Olympics and World Archery need to diversify the representation of shooting styles. Given the inclusion of compound, I felt it was appropriate to not only republish it but update it too.
War of the Feathers – Part 2
IV “I always wanted to do a landscape of the Mayne Lighthouse,” Ebrill said, relief in her voice as they clattered down the steps of the lighthouse’s base into the refreshingly cool, salty air. Evander enjoyed the taste and smell…
Archers Of Ennis (Onwards and upwards)
Introduction – who we are… We are a dedicated community built on shared passion, friendly competition, and a genuine love for the art of archery – Archers of Ennis isn’t just a place to hone our skills. It’s become the…
Where the Paper Cuts Deeper: A Return to Clonkeen Woods
Portlaoise carries its soul just beneath the hedgerows, where boots sink slightly and tree roots knot like old thoughts. And tucked within that pulse, in Clonkeen Woods – where the canopy breaks into mottled shadow and the light stammers across…
The Bow Remembers: On the Ethics of Recoil
The essay that follows—perhaps a touch long for an online piece—is, in truth, a chapter from The Arrow Knows No Master, a book I’ve been quietly shaping since February of last year. It’s composed of individual essays—mostly reflective, occasionally philosophical—on…
No Comfort Zone For Next 24 Targets
As the fictious, famed Chaos Theorist and open shirt enthusiast, Dr Ian Malcom, once said, “Hang on, this is going to be bad.” 3D Archery is not like Field Archery, and very far removed from Target Archery. Each of the…
Page turner picks (Column)
Making Wooden Arrows – A Master’s Guide By John Potter 2020 Edition/90 pages I believe the making of wooden arrows, and their pairing to the archer and the bow as one of the truest skills in archery. And sadly, one…
War of the Feathers – Part I
The beginning of a war, the arrows of one nation against the griffin worshiping ideology of another nation.
Following on from the prologue published last month, Evander Penrose must endure against the surrealist nature of this conflict and build a defence to repel vast odds.
Aleksander Wat and Japanese Archery
Japanese Archery By Aleksander Wat (in Marcin Malek poetical interpretation) 1The hand to the bowstring speaks:Bend to me, yield.The bowstring to the hand replies:Strike bold, be steeled.The bowstring whispers to the shaft:O arrow, flee!The arrow to the bowstring calls:Unshackle me!The…
Arrows Across the 38th Parallel
There are places where history does not settle, where time folds in on itself, leaving wounds that never scar over. Korea is such a place. A land split not by nature, nor by the will of its people, but by…
The Forgotten Bastion: Jean de Brosse and the Silence of History
I don’t remember when exactly. Could’ve been Lyon. Or Toulouse. Maybe Montpellier. It hardly matters now, except for the sound of rain. A persistent, whispering sort, seeping into the bones of an evening too worn to protest. I had been…
War of the Feathers
When a holy beast is slain by a rogue and so-called Maytoni prince retribution comes fast for the Maytoni nation. Their neighbours, the Xellcarrians, once bonded allies, are seeking blood as recompense.
Royalism is akin to heresy within Maytoni, going against their values of equality and equity - but this hardly stops families with bloodlines rooted in lost riches and prestige.
As the prelude to total war plays out on the Mayne Peninsula, Evander Penrose of the Maytoni Summiteers, elite archers, finds himself in unofficial command. He understands the contrived origins of the conflict, and wants the so-called prince handed over. Yet with the preparator in flight, and thirty thousand Xellcarrians on the horizon, Evander must hold off annexation, against six to one odds, whilst doing everything he can to prevent further escalation.
Yet the Xellcarrians are not his true enemy, as the Maytoni pro-royalist elements seek to ensure bloody total war erupts to ensure the resurgence of their own power.
For anyone who has read The Phoenix Archer, the name Evander Penrose and the War of the Feathers will be recognisable. This is his story about a defining event which has a profound effect on his character in The Phoenix Archer follow up, Orion's Legacy.
Ishi The Last of The Yashi…
It’s a strange thing, to draw a bow and feel the pull of something older than time itself—a quiet understanding between hand, string, and arrow. I think about that often, about how archery is less about hitting a target than…
Archers Talkin’ Archery – Leeanne Halliday
More quick interviews with archers here in the north and elsewhere. Archers Talkin' Archery is back!
A Bow Drawn Against the Wind – Akira Kurosawa and his vision of men
Stories are not told. They are loosed, like arrows from a drawn bow, their fletching kissed by breath, their paths uncertain yet inevitable. A storyteller does not own the tale—he only pulls the string, lets it fly, watches it carve…
The Fever That Dwells in Men
Have you heard of a madness that does not burn with fire but seeps like a disease, making bones feverish and bending the mind to its will? It does not speak, it does not sing, it does not threaten, but…
Erased by Fire and Time
The first thing they saw was the light. It came from the sea, from beyond the edges of the world they had known, a gleam upon the water like the sun’s fractured reflection. Then the ships, too vast to be…
The Shadow of Arrows: Thomas de Montagu and the Longbowmen of the Hundred Years’ War.
At times, especially within historical investigations, things become fleeting and elusive. The past ceases to be a fragile record and becomes the superficial memory of a chronicler. However, there are moments when it stirs, gathering a strange, electric energy, and…
From Ancient Bows to Soviet Arrows: Archery in Russian and Soviet Literature
I grew up amongst books, although never knowing for sure whether it was a blessing or a burden. In those days, you didn’t choose what you read. You took what was given, what was printed, what had survived the censors,…