Books: The Skean - The Distinctive Fighting Knife of Gaelic Ireland

Military historian Robert Gresh has written the definitive (and perhaps the only) book devoted to the skean (Irish: scian), an Irish knife that fell into disuse after the Tudor conquest:

How did one use a skean? According to Gresh, while the skean had a single cutting edge and could slash when necessary, it was more often used for stabbing in close quarters with a point-down icepick grip, usually through weak points in mail and plate armor. To this end, most skeans were fairly long (big enough to be used as a forearm guard, like a tonfa).  Shorter versions could supposedly be thrown, end over end, like missiles.

Skeans aren't common today. The ones Gresh features in the book were found at the bottom of rivers, or in the dusty closets of collectors and museums, and surviving examples are often mistaken for Scottish dirks. But it's an authentically Irish weapon, from a time when Irishness itself was in danger.