Abstract
In 1909 two Irish Protestant nationalist activists, Constance, Countess Markievicz (1868–1927) and Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969), established a nationalist youth organization called Na Fianna Éireann, or the Irish National Boy Scouts.1 It was designed to be an Irish nationalist antidote to Robert Baden-Powell’s pro-British Boy Scout movement, which had spread to Ireland in 1908.2 For some members, participation in the Fianna merely served a social function, while for others it served as a recruitment and training ground for their future roles in the struggle for Irish independence. Although the Fianna was initially open to all Irish boys (and some girls) between the ages of eight and eighteen, membership was later limited to boys aged between twelve and eighteen. This restriction of membership to adolescent males was possibly a reflection of the increasingly militant activities of the organization, particularly from 1916 onwards.
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Notes
For more in-depth discussion of the Fianna, see J. Anthony Gaughan, Scouting in Ireland (Dublin: Kingdom Books, 2006), 33–77;
Marnie Hay, ‘The foundation and development of Na Fianna Éireann, 1909–16’, Irish Historical Studies, 36: 141 (2008), 53–71;
Damian Lawlor, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish revolution, 1909 to 1923 (Rhode, Co. Offaly: Caoillte Books, 2009);
John R. Watts, ‘Na Fianna Éireann: A case study of a political youth organisation’ (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 1981).
Joost Augusteijn (ed.), The Irish Revolution, 1913–1923 (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2002), viii.
James McGuire and James Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) (accessed online 7–8 Feb. 2011). A search of the online version of the Dictionary of Irish biography (DIB) generated a list of the following former Fianna members born between 1888 and 1912 who joined during the years of the Irish revolution: Seán Brady (1890–1969), Michael Brennan (1896–1986), Robert Briscoe (1894–1969), Basil Clancy (1907–96), Con Colbert (1888–1916), Thomas Derrig (1897–1956), Dan Dowd (1903–89), Joe Groome (c. 1908–77), Stephen Hayes (1902–74), Archie Heron (1894–1971), Ina Connolly Heron (1896–1980), Seán Heuston (1891–1916), Austin Hogan (né Dilloughery) (1906–74), Paddy Holohan (1897–1946), Garry Holohan (1894–1967), John Joe ‘Purty’ Landers (1907–2001), John McCann (1905–80), Maurice MacGonigal (1900–79), Hugo McNeill (1900–63), Liam Mellows (1892–1922), Thomas Mullins (1903–78), Nora Connolly O’Brien (1893–1981), Tommy O’Brien (1905–88), Peter O’Connor (1912–99), Patrick O’Daly (1888–1957), John Ormonde (1905–81), Cathal O’Shannon (1890–1969), George Plant (1904–42), James Plant (born c. 1903), Augustus ‘Percy’ Reynolds (1895–1983), Séamus Robinson (1890–1961), Desmond Ryan (1893–1964), Eugene Sheehan (1903–86), John Joe Sheehy (1897–1980), Joseph Walsh (1905–92), John Walsh (born c. 1900) and Martin Walton (1901–81). Please note: (1) some of these individuals do not have DIB entries of their own but are included in a sibling’s entry; (2) DIB entries were written by different authors who had access to varying amounts of source material, so they do not always allow for a comprehensive comparison of the backgrounds of former members; (3) there may be other former Fianna members included in the DIB, but their membership is not mentioned in their entry; and (4) the entry for Joseph Walsh is unclear as to whether he was indeed a member of the Fianna. As his father promoted the youth group in Waterford and his older brother John was a Fianna captain, his membership is likely.
Anne Marreco, The rebel countess (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967), 114; Sean McGarry, witness statement, 15 Apr. 1950 (NAI, BMH, WS 368).
David Fitzpatrick, ‘Militarism in Ireland, 1900–1922’ in Thomas Bartlett and Keith Jeffrey (eds), A military history of Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 382–3.
Andrew Donson, Youth in the fatherless land: War pedagogy, nationalism and authority in Germany, 1914–1918 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 49.
Colin Heywood, A history of childhood: Children and childhood in the west from medieval to modern times (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005), 29–30.
Richard A. Smith, ‘Robert Baden-Powell’ in John Cannon (ed.), The Oxford companion to British history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 72; Robert A. Smith, ‘Boy Scouts’ and ‘Boys’ Brigade’ in Cannon, Oxford companion, 119.
John Springhall, Coming of age: Adolescence in Britain, 1860–1960 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1986), 39.
Paul Wilkinson, ‘English youth movements, 1908–30’, Journal of Contemporary History, 4: 2 (1969), 6.
In addition, see Richard A. Voeltz, ‘“…A Good Jew and a Good Englishman”: The Jewish Lads’ Brigade, 1894–1922’, Journal of Contemporary History, 23: 1 (1988), 119–27.
Smith, ‘Boys’ Brigade’ in Cannon (ed.), Oxford companion, 119; Henry Collis, Fred Hurll and Rex Hazlewood, B.-P.’s Scouts: An official history of the Boy Scouts Association (London: Collins Press, 1961), 48, 55.
Brian Morris, ‘Ernest Thompson Seton and the origins of the Woodcraft movement’, Journal of Contemporary History, 5:2 (1970), 185, 187–8.
See Michael Rosenthal, ‘Knights and retainers: The earliest version of Baden Powell’s Boy Scout scheme’, Journal of Contemporary History, 15: 4 (1980), 603–17;
Allen Warren, ‘Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the Scout movement and citizen training in Great Britain, 1900–1920’, English Historical Review, 101: 399 (1986), 376–98;
John Springhall, ‘Baden-Powell and the Scout movement before 1920: Citizen training or soldiers of the future?’, English Historical Review, 102: 405 (1987), 934–42; Anne Summers, ‘Scouts, Guides and VADs: A note in reply to Allen Warren’, Ibid., 943–7; Allen Warren, ‘Baden-Powell: A final comment’, Ibid., 948–50.
Bulmer Hobson, Ireland yesterday and tomorrow (Tralee: Anvil Books, 1968), 15.
For a discussion of Hobson’s early Belfast Fianna, see Marnie Hay, Bulmer Hobson and the nationalist movement in twentieth-century Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), 28–9.
Ann Matthews, Renegades: Irish republican women, 1900–22 (Cork: Mercier Press, 2010), 109; Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, ‘A short history of the Hibernian Rifles, 1912–1916’, 31 March 2013, available at http//www.theirishstory.com/2013/03/31/a-short-history-of-the-hibernian-rifles-1912–1916/#.UjHVCNKOSuI (accessed online 14 Aug. 2013); Mary McLoughlin, witness statement, c. Feb. 1954 (Military Archives (MA), BMH, WS 934). In some contemporary documents, the organization’s name is spelled Clan na Gael and its members are called Girl Guides. Although Joseph E. A. Connell, Jr, states that Markievicz joined the Kelly sisters in forming the Clann na Gael Girl Scouts, I have found no contemporary reference to Markievicz’s involvement in the endeavour. See Joseph E. A. Connell, ‘Inghinidhe na hÉireann/Daughters of Ireland, Clan na nGaedheal/Girl Scouts of Ireland’, History Ireland, 19:5 (Sept./Oct. 2011), 66.
John Springhall, Youth, empire and society (London: Croom Helm Ltd., 1977), 24.
Natalie Zemon Davis, ‘The reasons of misrule: Youth groups and charivaris in sixteenth-century France’, Past and Present, 1: 1 (1971), 74.
For more on the Fianna’s print propaganda, see Marnie Hay, ‘This treasured island: Irish nationalist propaganda aimed at children and youth’ in Mary Shine Thompson and Celia Keenan (eds), Treasure islands: Studies in children’s literature (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006), 33–42;
Hay, ‘The propaganda of Na Fianna Éireann, 1909–26’ in Mary Shine Thompson (ed.), Young Irelands: Studies in children’s literature (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011), 47–56;
Hay, ‘What did advanced nationalists tell Irish children in the early twentieth century?’ in Ciara Ní Bhroin and Patricia Kennon (eds), What do we tell the children? (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), 148–62.
See Pádraic Ó Riain (ed.), Fianna handbook (Dublin: Central Council of Na Fianna Éireann, 1914), 17–21.
Seamus MacCaisin, witness statement, 8 June 1947 (NAI, BMH, WS 8). A writer associated with the Irish literary revival, Padraic Colum’s play The Saxon shilling had been rejected previously by the Irish National Theatre Society, a forerunner of the Abbey Theatre, on the grounds that it was merely anti-military recruitment propaganda (Robert Welch (ed.), The concise Oxford companion to Irish literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 64–5) The play’s message was in keeping with the promise made by Fianna members ‘never to join England’s armed forces’ (‘Na Fianna Éireann’, Irish Freedom, Sept. 1912, 6).
Lieut. General R. S. S. Baden-Powell, Scouting for boys: A handbook for instruction in good citizenship, fifth impression (London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1908), 266.
Ben Novick, Conceiving revolution: Irish nationalist propaganda during the First World War (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001), 169.
See Fianna Éireann Dublin Brigade, Easter Week 1916–1922 Commemoration Aeridheacht souvenir programme, 23 April 1922 (Dublin: Fianna Éireann Dublin Brigade, 1922)
Cathal O’Shannon (ed.), Souvenir of the golden jubilee of Fianna Éireann, Aug. 16, 1909–Aug. 16, 1959 (Dublin: Na Fianna Éireann, 1959).
Willie Nelson [Pádraic Ó Riain], ‘Na Fianna Éireann’, Irish Volunteer, 26 June 1915, 8;
Pádraig MacFhloinn, ‘The history and tradition of Fianna Éireann’ in Fianna Éireann handbook (Dublin: Fianna Éireann, 1988), 10.
Jacqueline Van Voris, Constance de Markievicz in the cause of Ireland (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1967), 89–90.
Margaret Ward, Unmanageable revolutionaries: Women and Irish nationalism (London: Pluto Press, 1989, 1995), 105–6.
Shane Hegarty and Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times book of the 1916 Rising (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2006), 44.
The Dáil first met on 21 Jan. 1919 and consisted of the 73 Sinn Féin candidates elected in the 1918 general election. They abstained from taking their seats in the Westminster parliament and instead established their own legislative assembly in Dublin. This new Irish parliament initially consisted of a unicameral assembly and a ministry (or cabinet) headed by a president. Defence was one of the departments within the ministry. Despite being proscribed by the British government in Sept. 1919, the Dáil continued to function throughout the War of Independence. See Deirdre McMahon, ‘Dáil Éireann’ in S. J. Connolly (ed.), The Oxford companion to Irish history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 133–4.
It would be many years before girls could join the Fianna on an equal footing with the boys. In the early 1930s Cumann na mBan established Cumann na gCailíní, the Irish National Girl Scouts, which still served as the female counterpart to the Fianna in 1964. (See Na Fianna Éireann, The young guard of Erin: Iris-leabhair na bhFiann: The Fianna handbook (3rd edn, Dublin: Na Fianna Éireann, 1964), 145) The Fianna finally accepted girls in 1968−69. (See Watts, ‘Na Fianna Éireann: A case study of a political youth organisation’, 295−6). A statement from the leadership of the republican movement published in the 1988 Fianna Éireann handbook hailed one of the most welcome and progressive moves within the Fianna as the opening of the organization to young women and girls, remarking that ‘there could not be a more appropriate memorial to your founder, Constance Markievicz’ (Fianna Éireann handbook, 1–2).
Leeann Lane, Rosamond Jacob: Third person singular (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2010), 123.
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Hay, M. (2015). An Irish Nationalist Adolescence: Na Fianna Éireann, 1909–1923. In: Cox, C., Riordan, S. (eds) Adolescence in Modern Irish History. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230374911_6
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