Image credit: Alex Abdolwahabi
Mike Prendergast has been researching and practising historical European martial arts since 1999. He has co-translated and interprets Pietro Monte’s martial omnibus, ‚The Collectanea‚ (1509). Mike has a wider interest in Renaissance Italian fencing styles, initially studying Bolognese fencing, he also teaches the rapier of Nicoletto Giganti (1606) and the system of Fiore dei Liberi (c. 1410).
As a competitor, Mike has medaled in international tournaments in longsword, rapier, rapier & dagger, sword & buckler and montante. He was delegate (team captain) and rapier & dagger competitor on Team UK and Ireland for the HEMA tournament at the European Games in Minsk in 2019.
Mike is founder and chief instructor of the Historical Combat Academy (HCA) and also instructs with SCA Dun in Mara, in Dublin, Ireland. He has taught HEMA in Ireland, the UK, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Serbia, Switzerland and the USA. He coordinates the committee for the International Rapier Seminar (IRS) which he hosted in 2015. He has presented his translation work at academic and public conferences in France and Belarus.
