Anthonio Akkermans (Head Instructor)

Born in the Netherlands, Anthonio studied bushcraft from childhood, and at 16, became the first mentored pupil of Ofer Israeli, who invited him to volunteer at his own bushcraft school there - he rarely missed a single course. Anthonio established a youth-group in this school in 1998 which allowed children and teenagers to come out into the woods and learn earth-living skills once a week. He loved seeing the connection young people made with nature and the balance it gave to their lives.
One year later, he moved to London. He travelled regularly to New Jersey where he learnt more native skills at Tom Brown’s Tracker school. In 2001, Anthonio moved to Northern Ireland, where he made his dream a reality and founded Wild-Live.

An active member of the Society of Primitive Technology, he also recently published a book about earth-living skills entitled “Bushcraft Skills and How to Survive in the Wild”. This book is sold world-wide and is now in it's second print-run.
Anthonio also writes articles which regularly appear in various Bushcraft and Survival magazines.

When not teaching adults on his courses, Anthonio has other commitments. He teaches teenagers through various local charities. He shares skills in the archaeology department at Queens University Belfast about how our ancestors lived their lives through demonstrations and lectures. He reproduces a huge array of artefacts for various museums, universities and television companies. He enjoys learning new skills on travels locally and in different terrains around the world.

Liam McGlinchey ( Visiting Instructor)

Liam McGlinchey has been involved in Martial Arts for 23 years.
He holds black belts in Karate and Kickboxing, earning two gold medals in the All Irelands championships in the latter. He has also trained in Boxing while at university, and has also studied Eskrima and Silat for four years, and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu for two years.

Having worked in the security industry, his main focus is on self-defence, rather than the promotion of any one system.
He now runs his own organization, CREDO, which promotes scenario based self defence training, and teaches people common, easy to learn tactics against the most common type of attacks people are likely to face.
He also privately trains people in Stickfighting, Knifefighting, Boxing, Clinchfighting and Groundfighting, with an emphasis on realistic application.

In the past few years, Liam has spent a lot of his energy obsessively pursuing primitive skills, attending virtually every available course he managed to fit in his tight schedule, while spending any free time practicing his favourite learned techniques to extreme mastery.

Liam is one of the few graduates of Primitive Living two, having successfully lived off the land for a week with nothing but the clothes he wore on his back.
Although Liam can be found helping on many courses, his main responsibility is the physical work-out schedule and the Martial Arts / self-defence teaching involved in the Scout Program.

E-mail: liam.mcglinchey@gmail.com

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Aebhric O'Kelly (Visiting Instructor)

Together with his wife Anna, Aebhric O'Kelly runs his own organisation in Co. Kerry called the "Institute for Permaculture and Nature Awareness" (www.ipna.ie)
As a naturalist and wilderness medic, Aebhric brings to Ireland a unique background in military medicine, naturopathy, Five Element Acupuncture and Native American philosophy.

He studied philosophy with the Lakota, and attended a two-year naturalist training programme at the Wilderness Awareness School founded by tracker and naturalist Jon Young. He continued his studies with Tom Brown Jr in New Jersey, and culminated this training with an internship at the Trackerschool. He recently returned to the school to certify the tracker instructors with the ten day Wilderness First Responder course.

Aebhric spent ten years in the US Army Special Forces where he trained in austere medicine, wilderness survival and special tactics as a Green Beret.

Since he left the army he studied Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University and finished a Master’s degree in wilderness psychology from Prescott College. He is currently working towards a Doctorate in Sustainable Medicine from the University of Wales.

Aebhric brings his wealth of knowledge, unique teaching-style and inspiring vision to Wild-Live to teach the Wilderness First Responder and Outdoor First Aid courses.

E-mail: kerrytracker@gmail.com.

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Moritz Nickles (Intern)

Moritz has joined us from Germany to spend the winter as an intern at our school. He joined us in September, and you will see him around until March. Off the courses, Moritz is busy with all the things that need doing to allow courses to take place such as maintaining the trails, cutting fire-wood, caretaking the site, etc. While on the course Moritz is around to help you, the course participant, to have a more productive time.

While the above keeps Moritz very busy, we also mentor Moritz on a regular basis in the skills we teach, and Moritz is helping us to complete a flaura and fauna survey of Castle Ward.

E-mail: 

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