BJJ in Belfast

Belfast is **Northern Ireland's only BJJ city in the directory** — all **11** of NI's listings sit inside the Belfast metro, from the city centre (Ann Street, Union Street) out to Boucher Road, Lisburn Road, East Belfast (Prince Regent, Albertbridge), West Belfast / Dunmurry and Carryduff to the south. Pricing is in GBP and the city's adult unlimited band runs **£60–£75/mo** — Talos Grappling £60, BASE Jiu Jitsu £65, Trickster £70, Lycan Grappling £75 — with **Fight Academy Ireland** topping out at £125/mo on its committed MMA tier. Drop-ins range from £8 (Talos) to £12 (Fight Academy Ireland). The instructor bench is unusually deep for a city this size: **Braulio Estima** is the most-represented black-belt lineage, with **Zé Marcello / Icon Team**, **Peter Mamaev / Jungle BJJ Ireland** and **SBG** networks all anchored here. Belfast is also the home of **Northern Ireland's first IBJJF-certified academy** (BASE Jiu Jitsu). The two headline pure-BJJ schools are **SBG Belfast** and **Icon Jiu Jitsu Belfast**. **SBG Belfast** under **Damien Mulgrave** BB sits at Joy's Entry (30 Ann St, BT1 4DR) in the city centre and is Belfast's flagship Straight Blast Gym branch — a full age-graded curriculum running Cheeky Monkeys (4-6), Growing Gorillas (7-12), Teens (13-17), Adult Fundamentals, Blue Belt+, a Females-Only programme and Grumpy Grapplers (35+), with included S&C and a competition team that travels to IBJJF Europeans and Masters Worlds. **Icon Jiu Jitsu Belfast** under **David Terry** BB is on Boucher Road (BT12 6HH) and is the local outpost of the global **Icon Team** founded by 6th-degree **Zé Marcello** (140+ affiliates worldwide), with a premium fit-out (members lobby, showers, large mat space) and a 'no egos, just progress' culture. The most credentialed instructor bench is at **BASE Jiu Jitsu — BJJ School Belfast** in Carryduff (BT8 8BD) — **Northern Ireland's first IBJJF-certified academy** — under **Alan Lowry** (3rd-degree BB under **Braulio Estima**, awarded 23 May 2015). Lowry shares the room with seven other black belts including **Eddie Salisbury** (3rd-degree BB / Estima), **Ciaran Toal** (3rd-degree BB / Estima, multi-time Irish & NI champion), **Conor Dunbar** (2nd-degree BB under **Jude Samuel**, British Open medalist), **Kevin McCall** (2016 British Open champion, kids/teens), **Ronnie Malone** (European IBJJF bronze, London Open medalist), **Aaron Rainey** and **Shaun Slane**, plus brown-belt **Marcelo Mota** on the kids/teens track. Adult Full Membership runs **£65/mo** (28 classes/month, all Gi/No-Gi/Open Mats + Foundation + Advanced + UKBJJA insurance, no contract), with a Concessionary tier at £50, Kids/Teens at £45 and a 7-day free trial plus a paid 4-Week Accelerator Course for total beginners. **Lycan Grappling Academy** in East Belfast (Prince Regent Trade Centre, BT5 6QR) under **Graham Keys** BB under **Braulio Estima** — and son Aaron Keys — is the **only Gracie Barra affiliation** in the state, having previously traded as **Gracie Barra Belfast/NI** (and still using the graciebarrabelfast Instagram handle). Programs cover Essentials, Advanced, **Little Wolves** (6-15), Judo, **Women's-Only BJJ** and **Women's-Only Self-Defence**, at £75/mo adults and £40/mo kids with a generous family / member-discount price ladder and a free 14-day trial. **Talos Grappling** at Dairy Farm Shopping Centre in Dunmurry (West Belfast, BT17 0AW) is the **cross-border link** in the city's BJJ scene — co-owned by black belts **Harry Lewis** (X Choke specialist) and **Conor Toland** (Kesa Gatame specialist), both promoted under **Peter Mamaev** (1st-degree BB of **Jungle BJJ Ireland**), with a six-strong brown/purple bench (Michael Duff, Aodhan Liddy, Brien Gillen, Brendan Dougan, Shane Brannigan, Kevin Lyttle). UKBJJA-accredited, 1,000+ sq ft of FUJI mats, **£60/mo adult unlimited**, £45 student, £30 teen, £75 family (one adult + one child), £8 drop-in and a free two-week trial — the most affordable serious-BJJ ticket in the city and the directory's most direct organic thread tying Belfast into the Republic of Ireland circuit. **New Ground Jiu Jitsu Academy** on Union Street (BT1 2JF) is the **ZR Team UK** affiliate under **Alain Pozo**, competition / sport-focused with a Mon–Fri morning, lunchtime and evening Gi + No-Gi schedule, a four-tier Youth Academy (Hatchlings 3-5, Crocs 6-10, Gators 10-14, Teens Beginner 15-17) and a free Sunday open mat for visitors. **Trickster Jiu Jitsu** at 2A Edinburgh Street off the Lisburn Road (BT9 7DS) is a full-time UKBJJA-registered BJJ school under brown-belt head coach **Conleth O'Grady** and purple-belt **Mohamed**, with two mat spaces totalling 1,300+ sq ft, a members' gym, Wednesday yoga, and dedicated beginners and teens (12-15) programmes — **£70/mo unlimited**, £60 student, £56 NHS, £45 teens, £10 drop-in. The MMA-leaning bench rounds out the city. **Fight Academy Ireland** in Dunmurry (BT17 0HE) is one of Belfast's largest MMA clubs — pros from UFC, PFL, TUF, Brave and Cage Warriors (Paul Hughes, Rhys McKee, Paddy McCorry) — with head coach **Liam Shannon** BB and BJJ / no-gi instructor **Luke Buchanan** BB, **described as Ireland's youngest ever black belt**. Pricing is MMA-style: **£125/mo committed**, £85 casual (3 classes/week), £70 teens/kids committed, and a 10-Week Beginners MMA Course at £120 total. **IFS MMA Gym** on W Bank Rd (BT3 9JL) is a cross-community MMA gym (BRAVE CF, Bellator, Cage Warriors, BAMMA fighters) under **Paul McLaughlin** that hosts a weekly BJJ Grappling session on Thursdays alongside MMA-oriented no-gi. **Blackstaff Grappling** on Springfield Rd (BT12 7AE) is a smaller Gi / No-Gi / MMA room with limited public detail. **Vanquish Brazilian Jiu Jitsu** on Albertbridge Rd in East Belfast (BT5 4PS) is a beginner-friendly Gi BJJ gym with web presence limited to a Facebook page (jiujitsubrotherhoodbelfast handle). As Northern Ireland's single BJJ hub, Belfast sits inside both the **wider UK circuit** (UKBJJA-registered rooms at Talos, Trickster and BASE; British Open titles across BASE's bench; the Gracie Barra / Braulio Estima Birmingham connection through Lycan and BASE) and the **all-Ireland scene** (the Talos / Jungle BJJ Ireland / Peter Mamaev thread linking south, and Luke Buchanan's all-island reputation as Ireland's youngest ever black belt). Traditional **Japanese Ju-Jitsu** clubs in Belfast (WJJF / Kennedy Jujitsu / Bujinkan affiliates) are not BJJ and are not part of this directory.