Blueshirts

Blueshirts, popular name for the Army Comrades' Association, a political movement formed by ex‐servicemen from the Free State army in February 1932. In reaction to the unexpected victory of de Valera in the general election, supporters of Cumann na nGaedheal flocked to its ranks, and it soon included members who had no previous military connections. Following de Valera's more decisive electoral victory in January 1933, the movement's political nature was reinforced, and it began to adopt the trappings of continental European fascist movements, including the wearing of distinctive shirts (in this case blue ones, which gave the movement its popular name).

In July 1933 Eoin O'Duffy, Garda commissioner until his dismissal by de Valera, took over as leader of the movement, whose formal name was now altered to National Guard. The Blueshirts engaged in a significant trial of strength with the government in August 1933, when a successful ban on a major march demoralized the movement. Shortly thereafter, however, the National Guard merged with Cumann na nGaedheal and the Centre Party to form Fine Gael, of which O'Duffy became first leader.

Although O'Duffy's political inexperience and tendency towards extremism caused his tenure of the leadership of the new party to be short‐lived (he was forced to resign on 21 Sept. 1934), the Blueshirts continued in existence under new names—first as the Young Ireland Association and later as the League of Youth—before fading away following further tensions between O'Duffy and his former Fine Gael colleagues. They last came to significant public attention when O'Duffy and some of his followers left Ireland in 1936 to fight on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War.

Ideologically, and in terms of its rituals, the Blueshirt movement had much in common with continental European fascism: it was suspicious of party politics, sympathetic towards the notion of a strong leader, antipathetic towards communism, and nationalist in orientation. Its ideologues provided an intellectual justification for this package, especially by reference to corporate social theory. But, as in the case of other fascist‐type movements, these ideas were disseminated imperfectly among members of the movement, many of whom were motivated more by hostility to Fianna Fáil's radical economic policies and its continued links with the IRA.

Bibliography

Manning, Maurice , The Blueshirts (1971)

John Coakley