Nathan Gray

Head instructor

Nathan Gray is the founder and head instructor of Gray School of Arms.
Born in the city of Dublin and starting his study of martial arts at the age of 5, Nathan has over 27 years of experience within varying styles of martial arts.
 
Nathan has also seen great success on the tournament scene, represented Ireland successfully on 6 separate occasions and becoming a 4 time all Ireland champion in kickboxing and a 2 time European champion in Kung fu.
 
Taking a break from the tournament scene Nathan began training in multiple forms of Kali and siliate under his long time teacher and friend Jon O' Neill of the Naa fianna fin combat academy. Along with his study of the Filipino and Indonesian fighting arts Nathan began to study and explore the fighting arts of western Europe.
 
Nathans main focus today is on that of Western martial arts. Specializing in the Spanish system of La Verdadera Destreza under Master at Arms Ton Puey.

In addition to teaching martial skills, he also lectures on the martial traditions of Europe, both from a martial standpoint and a cultural one. Among teaching martial arts, Nathan also instructs in fight choreography, recently having instructed alongside Highlanders Adrian Paul as well as many stage performers, Actors and extras for Vikings and other productions. 

Nathan is also a writer-researcher, and features in Ireland's leading Martial arts magazine Irish fighter.

Nathan teaches in Dublin city and Cahir town branches of the School.

Matt o' Brian

Scholar captian

Matt O’ Brien joined Gray School of Arms in May 2016. Prior to that he trained in Tae Kwon Do for one year, kickboxing for 3 years and athletics on and off for 5 years. He competed on the Maynooth intervarsity kickboxing team in 2012 and ran the Dublin Marathon in 2013. His current interests include researching Destreza sources and training with single-sword and cross-bouting.

Matt is an assistant teacher at the Dublin city school.