8/31/00 10:40 a.m.
Head Bashing in County Tipperary
Some Irish history, and a word of advice to the government.
By Dave Kopel, director of the Independence Institute

Why do teenagers join gangs? Drugs, TV violence, divorce,
cuts in social spending, problems with the government
schools – everyone’s got a theory about what’s to blame.
While all these factors do play a role, the root problem may
rest in human nature – not in government policy.
Back in 1805, County Tipperary in Ireland witnessed the
outbreak of a craze called “faction fighting.” The faction
fighting rage quickly caught on in Munster and Leinster, and
then in most of the rest of Ireland.
Here’s how it worked. Folks in a given area would divide
themselves into factions with names like the Pudding Lane
Boys, the Bogboys, or the Black Hens and Magpies. All the
different factions lived together peacefully – and without
regard to their factional identity – until a day when a fair
was held. As the fair and feast wore into the evening, the
revelers grew inebriated and ugly.
After a while, two factions would line up in rows facing
each other. The faction fighters were usually armed with
stout oaken sticks – although sometimes they carried
stockings full of rocks, or other weapons. Faction leaders
would goad each other by ritual call and response.”Here’s
tobacco and who dar’s smoke it,” one man would cry. “I’ll
cut it,” would come the reply. “Let who likes smoke it.”
Soon the faction leaders would be fencing with their oak
cudgels, and soon after that, the two factions would rush at
each other in a general melee. By the unwritten rules,
everyone usually paired off for man-to-man combat.
Eventually, two factions would get tired and go home, unless
the police had come to arrest them first. Deaths from
faction-fighting were the exception, but serious injuries
were the rule. The next day, life would be back to normal,
with everyone living together peacefully.
Historian Patrick O’Donnell suggests that while there were
sociological explanations for faction fighting, the root
cause was something more basic: the sheer love of fighting.
Human nature isn’t always rational or good. Sometimes when
people injure themselves or each other, there’s no good
reason. And there’s nothing the government can do about it.
Of course, the government should do everything it can to
combat the growth of violent gangs. But to keep expectations
realistic, it would be wise to remember that our most
serious problems stem not from social conditions, but from
human nature.

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