The general public will have an opportunity to learn about life and the sharp end, literally, with the visit of Second World Warfare expert Dennis Martin to Ireland in April. Dennis Martin is an expert on ‘edged weapon defence’ or in layman’s terms, ‘how to defend yourself against an attacker armed with a knife’ and he will be over from the UK as the guest of one of Ireland’s leading self defence experts, John Brawn of Realistic Self Defence Systems.

Dennis Martin is an expert on the work of two legendary instructors Eric Sykes and William Fairbairn who were instrumental in teaching pistol and Tommy gun shooting, Knife and Unarmed Combat to Special Forces troops during the war. Their unique, simple, direct and devastating techniques were taught to countless men who took these valuable lessons back to their own units and passed them on. They became legends and Fairbairn left Britain in 1942 and traveled to Canada and the United States to work with the OSS and other units. Sykes remained in Britain traveling extensively and together they later developed their own specially designed knife, the Fairbairn-Sykes dagger which is still used by Special Forces troops all over the world today.

Dennis Martin is a world-recognised expert in their special brand of unarmed self defence and will be teaching the course in Westport, Co. Mayo in April alongside Irish Black Belt John Brawn. Dennis is recently back in the UK after teaching the course to US Law Enforcement and the program has been presented on three continents to date.

For more information on the course, the instructor or the venue contact John Brawn on 086 8171482 or e-mail jbsecurity@anu.ie and the website with all the details is www.johnbrawn.com. The course takes place on April 29 from 10am to 6pm and spaces are limited so early booking is advised. Dennis will also be giving a course on the second day, April 30 on “Hard Skills” which is a Self Defence program based on unarmed combat of Fairbairn and Sykes.