Chief Instructor : Dave Martin - Grade 5th Dan

Dave was brought up in SE London during the 1960‘s and often suffered at first hand the violence of that city.  In 1977 he had the opportunity to learn karate within the UKKW which was headed by Tatsuo Suzuki, the man who brought Wado-ryu karate to Europe. This opened his eyes to the possibility of not only learning a satisfying art but also developing the self-defence skills he would sorely have appreciated earlier in life !!  
Having learnt the basics of karate under Sensei Barry Wilkinson, Dave moved
to Amsterdam for 4 years. During his time in Holland, Dave was able to widen his knowledge by training in traditional Wado-ryu, full contact karate and ju jitsu .

On his return from Holland, Dave moved to the Coventry area and joined a sport karate association headed by Clayton Murrain. Having spent several years at sport & full contact karate,  Dave decided to return to his first love of traditional  karate.

He joined Ian McCranor & Geoff Thompson  as a member of the Central England Karate Association and ran clubs in Leamington Spa and Coventry surrounding area. Ian and Geoff opened Dave’s eyes as to the possibilities within traditional karate to adapt and use as an effective modern fighting system.

When Ian moved to the USA, Dave looked for a new Sensei to move his karate career forward. He decided that Andy Genery (6th Dan) of the BWKU fitted the bill.

Dave moved to Northern Ireland in 1999 and decided to form his own association with the help of his wife Michele Martin.Our new association was  called the Ulster School of Traditional Karate.
When we decided to the way forward was to link up to the Washinkai system, we changed our name to Washinkai Karate Ireland to identify ourselves fully with the WASHINKAI karate system founded by Sensei Chris Thompson(8th Dan)

The decision to move forward to Washinkai has proved extremely successful and we now work to the full Washinkai syllabus.

Senior Instructor : Michele Martin - Grade  4th Dan

Qualifications & Background
Michele started training in 1984 in Ireland with the All Ireland Karate-Do Wado-Kai (AIKW) which was headed by Sensei Iwasaki and as a result has had the opportunity to train with most of the UK based Japanese Instructors.  Since the 90‘s Michele moved to England and tried a variety of styles and freestyle karate before going back to study Wado-Ryu with sensei Dave Martin.  Michele took her first black belt under Dave Martin, Ian McCranor and Geoff Thompson and was awarded 4th Dan black belt in 2005 by Chris Thompson (7th dan).

Michele works as a sports science lecturer for Omagh FE college, and acts for Washinkai Karate Ireland as Child Protection Officer & Coach Development Officer.