About Tai Chi Ireland

Tai Chi Ireland was set up in 1998 by Jan Golden. An acupuncturist, he was convinced that people could improve their health more if they did chi gung or tai chi, which are forms of auto-acupuncture. He found patients quite passive, and unwilling to change the fundamental things that were making them ill, so he quit to teach internal arts full-time, because at least if patients showed up to class, it meant that they had to move for an hour, being active and not a passive recipient of someone else’s energy. Combined with correct food intake-critical for those serious about deep health-the internal arts can make the body immensely strong and powerful, free from disease, and energetic to a degree that the dull morning coffee slurpers who throng the sad streets would scarcely believe.

Jan has been to China and back about 8 times, and is heading again in 2012. He has a teacher in Shanghai, Master Ma Bao Guo, who combines the very best of the Daoist and Confucian worlds and with whom Jan is a “Disciple”, or “Tudi”.

Jan has trained with BK Frantzis, Dan Docherty, John Ding, Tian Yin Jia ( from whom he was also honoured with ” Indoor Student” status), Li Bing Ci, and his mentor Chris Chappell in London, whose facility in learning and teaching continues to amaze him. Chris Chappell has made Jan’s career possible. No one before or since that Jan has met has thought about tai chi so deeply and, more to the point, been honest about it.

Tai Chi Ireland now has a beautiful studio in Dublin 8.

Students doing Standing Practice in Chi Gung class

The studio is not old, so we call it Dao. Dao is the correct pronunciation of Tao, and while people may prefer the old spelling, it’s not really the way the Chinese pronounce it.

Mind you, I prefer Peking to Beijing!

Jan Golden is dedicated to teaching openly the long held secrets of tai chi which for many years was passed down only through the family of the Yangs. With his mentor Chris, they reckon they have cracked some of the fundamental structural puzzles that have dogged them for years. Tai Chi is a martial art, but, while we teach Push Hands and do applications, we are not interested in violence per se. We are interested in defending ourselves, yes, but personally I am more interested in the ability to manifest power in the body. When you can do that, you know are working the body as a harmonious whole with all the immense correlative benefits accruing therefrom.

2012  approaches. The climate is difficult economically, and even meteorologically. I believe the practices I teach can alleviate the stress afflicting the country and go a long way to making people stay well and not get sick.

I hope you enjoy perusing the site.

Xie xie!

Jan Golden

(Jin Yang)