An Irish nationalist adolescence: Na Fianna Éireann, 1909–23
Hay, MarnieORCID: 0000-0002-7802-2096
(2015)
An Irish nationalist adolescence: Na Fianna Éireann, 1909–23.
In: Cox, CatherineORCID: 0000-0002-9865-420X and Riordan, Susannah, (eds.)
Adolescence in Modern Irish History.
Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood
.
Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 103-128.
ISBN 978-0-230-37490-4
In 1909 two Irish Protestant nationalist activists, Constance, Countess Markievicz
(1868–1927) and Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969), established a nationalist youth
organisation 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 organisation,
particularly from 1916 onwards.