Irish wrestler from 1907 op3

This turn of the century photo came from the Bain News agency . Pat Connelly with fashionable moustache in New York. Between Europe and Nth America from 1899 to 1914 can be called the golden age of professional wrestling.Theres another two other photographs of him on Flickr from 1910-15 under LOC -Library of Congress (George Grantham Bain Collection). He seemed to go missing 10-12 years later in 1917-19 ?
Circa 1830, Irish immigrants introduce collar-and-elbow wrestling into New England. The style was often used by the Irish to settle arguments, and was known as “collar-and-elbow” after the initial stances taken as defenses against kicking, punching, and rushing. The style became widely known during the American Civil War, and formed the basis for the American professional wrestling techniques of the 1870s and 1880s.

The first mention of traditional wrestling in the British Isles occurs in the ancient Irish, 'Book of Leinster' which refers to the sport being included in the Tailtin (Tailteann) Games in County Meath.This festival dates back to at least 1829 BC (another account cites 632 BC for the inaugeration date) when according to legends it was founded by Nuguid of the Strong Arm , and was still in existence in AD 554 (the other account cites they lasted without interruption until 1169 AD) .Named after the Hill of Tailte burial mound of the Tailtiu , the royal lady of the Fir Bolg.The games were part of the festival of Lughnasa , a time of feasting, dancing ,marriage and displays of skills in the first week of August.The games were revived in 1924 with the gathering of international athletes at Croke Park , Dublin the home of Gaelic football.Today , the modern concept of these Tailteann games is a festival of school athletics.

Wrestling has its origins among the first peoples to take wrestling competitions seriously: the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks.

Paintings from the Beni-Hasan wall (c.2000 BC) in Egypt display wrestlers using holds and grapples very similar to those used four thousand years later by freestyle competitors. In Egypt, wrestling was part of military training. It remained a form of training but also became an art and a science, a form of honour, during the Greek civilization (800-146 BC).

Vase paintings from Greece (c.600 BC) indicate that the Greeks regulated the contestants by allowing their trainers to act as referees. The Greek style was 'upright', a standing position, and contestants were allowed to use their arms and legs. A fall was awarded against a wrestler whose body touched the ground. The early Olympic contests were two-out-of-three falls. Wrestling became an Olympic sport at the 18th Olympiad in 708 BC.

If this sounds a long way from modern wrestling, then the following may inject a note of caution. In 648 BC, the Greeks accepted into the competition a style of wrestling known as Pankration. It would have horrified many for its brutality. Pankration was no-holds-barred,with throwing strangling,arm locks and punching; though biting and eye-gouging were prohibited in Olympic competition. Strangling, bone-breaking and kicking were all okay. Pankration wrestlers ended up maimed and even dead.
When the Romans conquered the Greeks in 146 BC, they allowed wrestling to continue but changed the rules and style. Greco-Roman wrestling remains an Olympic sport and, mainly because of its amateur status, is regarded as genuine wrestling. Basically, Greco-Roman wrestling differs from freestyle wrestling in that it prohibits holds below the waist and wrestlers cannot use legs to obtain a fall. Today's Greco-Roman rules were developed in France in the nineteenth century.

Freestyle wrestling is also regarded as legitimate wrestling because of its strict regulation and amateur status. Any fair hold, trip or toss is allowed and a contestant wins by pinning his opponent's shoulders to the mat for one second.

The professionalisation of wrestling is not as recent as one might think. Under the Romans, the Greeks experienced an expansion of athletic festivals. Emperor Augustus realized that sporting events had helped unite the Greek city-states and he encouraged them for his own imperial Roman purposes. With the proliferation of festivals there developed individuals who could make a good living traveling from tournament to tournament. In his excellent Pictorial History of Wrestling (1968), Graeme Kent says that, the 'evils of professionalism' were 'rife' during the Roman age: 'Wrestlers openly sold themselves to the highest bidder, agreeing to lose if the price was right'.

Modern professional wrestling is really a product of three world-historical developments: the Renaissance (C14th-C15th), the French Revolution (1789-99) and the Industrial Revolution (late C18th-mid-C19th). For centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire (500 AD), the power of Christianity ensured that 'pagan' practices including some sports such as wrestling, were discouraged. However, the common folk continued their contests, developing regional styles, and wrestling was a popular attraction at medieval fairs for about 500 years.