Greetings!

Following the Annual General Meeting of the IAI I am pleased to announce that I will be staying on the IAI board in the capacity as President. I’m deeply honoured to fill this role and will try to meet the expectation of the membership. I’m also delighted that I will be assisted in this new role by Brian Kennedy who will be taking the role of Secretary of the Association.

These are new roles for both of us and appropriate perhaps with the new direction proposed and agreed upon by the membership at the AGM as hopefully the new board will spurn on the new focus of the IAI.

The association is moving into new territory and while the promotion of Iaido will always be our chief goal and purpose we hope to move beyond this and promote all Budo, the traditional martial arts of Japan, including Kendo, Jodo, Jujitsu, Karate, Kyudo and more to the general public in the hopes of providing Ireland with a dedicated informational resource where those curious about these incredible arts can learn more about them and get in contact with the many excellent clubs here and aboard dedicated to teaching these diverse and fascinating arts.

We plan to continue on with the work that has already been undertaken in this regard and will continue to display Iaido and promote the Budo at national events such as the Experience Japan Day in Farmleigh which we have been proud to be invited to demonstrate at for our 3rd consecutive year.

We will also continue to speak and demonstrate to universities such as we did for DCU this past year and of course represent and promote the Budo within the media including features in dedicated martial arts publications and the general press. Already we have confirmation that 4 separate features are to be published on the Dojo and our involvement in Irish Budo in the first quarter of the year.

A key element in the promotion of Budo here in Ireland we feel is through media, both in print and digital and as such we are implementing an entirely new website, Facebook fan pages and regular print advertisements that will introduce Budo in Ireland to a far broader and diverse base. Of course the goal here is to positively present not just Iaido but the other associated arts of the Budo through FREE advertisement on our site (already the No.1 Google ranked site for Iaido and Japanese sword arts in local Irish searches), for traditional Japanese martial arts clubs.

With that in mind, I invite all Dojos in Ireland practicing any form of Budo to contact us so that we may add your club to the public listings.

There is no charge for this.

We simply want more people in Ireland to be able to get in contact with those teaching Budo and experience all it offers for themselves. The more the merrier.

It is our hope that by creating a centralised informational resource for those interested in the traditional Japanese martial arts we can continue to fuel the increasingly popularity of Budo in Ireland and carry of the proud tradition that we have been entrusted with.

Yours,

Paul J.O’Brien
President IAI