IRISH POLICE BILLY CLUB NIGHTSTICK ,CA 1900

[Lee]

I must have missed this informative and helpful thread when it was fresh and I discovered it only when doing a Google search after acquiring an example at a New York State rural auction a few days ago. I had presumed it must have been for the tourist, owing to the depiction of Blarney Castle but I liked the theme including the stone tower and the high relief carved shamrocks.

The material was a mystery to me until I read Ken's comments - thank you! This example is 15 1/8 inches in length and weighs 17.7 ounces.

Somehow I suspect that a 'priest' is nominally to a fish dispatching tool exactly as a 'shillelagh' is to a walking stick.