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The 'Army Comrades Association' (ACA), later named 'National Guard' and better known by its nickname '''The Blueshirts''', was an Irish political organisation set up by General Eoin O'Duffy in 1932. O'Duffy was a former guerrilla leader in the Irish Republican Army ("Old IRA" before the Anglo-Irish Treaty), an Irish Army general (during the Irish Civil War) and a Garda commissioner (1922 to 1933).
It was regarded as Ireland's equivalent of Adolf Hitler's Brownshirts and Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts which were all members of the European fascist movement. Indeed, in December 1934 O'Duffy attended an International Fascist Conference in Montreux, Switzerland at which there were representatives from 13 other countries - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Switzerland. The argument that the Blueshirts were fascists is generally based on their own adherence to fascist ideology (with a particular admiration for Mussolini) as well as their fascist-style uniforms, use of the Roman salute (members shouted "Hoch O'Duffy!" at rallies), militant Catholicism and anti-communism and a belief in corporatism.
Its leaders argued that it was simply defending democracy, citing the actions of the IRA, which had attempted to break up meetings of the opposition ''Cumann na nGaedheal'' party whom they regarded as 'traitors'. However, anti-fascist opponents such as the Irish Republican Army (1922-1969), Fianna Fáil and the Communist Party of Ireland cited the example of other fascist movements coming to power where any democratic process was extinguished and how the Blueshirts clearly attempted to emulate this by their 'March on Dublin'.

Contents

Origins

O'Duffy becomes leader

Threatened 'March on Dublin'

How fascist were the Blueshirts?

References

Origins

In February 1932, the ''Army Comrades Association'' (ACA) was formed, set up both to promote the interests of ex-Free State army members, but also to defend conservative interests and halt what they perceived as an emerging 'communist threat' coming from their political opponents, the IRA, Fianna Fáil, and the Communist Party of Ireland.
In March 1932, Éamon de Valera, formerly leader of the anti-treaty faction during the Irish Civil War, became President of the Executive Council in the Irish Free State. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to repeal the ban which made the IRA an illegal organisation. De Valera also released many Republican prisoners from jail.
Following these moves, the IRA became increasingly active in disrupting the activities of the opposition party. The Blueshirts felt that freedom of speech was being repressed, and began to actively protect Cumann na nGaedhael meetings. This led to several serious clashes between the IRA and the Blueshirts.
IRA members referred to Cumann na nGaedhael as the ''murder government'' in reference to its execution without trial of over 77 republican prisoners during the Irish Civil War. Peadar O'Donnell adapted the anti-fascist slogan ''No Free Speech for Fascists'' to ''No Free Speech for Traitors'', referring to the "Free Staters" of the civil war. In a public meeting, he said that he was "glad that the murder government had been put out of power but these men must be put finally put of public life". The Cumann na nGaedheal paper, ''United Ireland'' for its part, claimed that "Mr deValera is leading the country straight into Bolshevik servitude".^[1]
In August 1932, Dr. Thomas F. O'Higgins, a Cumann na nGaedheal Teachta Dála (TD; member of Parliament) became the leader of the ACA (he was the brother of TD Kevin O'Higgins assassinated by the IRA in 1927). The ACA had the twin aims of defending free speech and promoting the interests of ex-Service men. However, the ACA increasingly took the role of protector at Cumann na nGaedheal meetings, when they were threatened by IRA activities. Clashes with the IRA became a regular occurrence and tensions rose sharply. in January 1933, de Valera called a surprise election, which Fianna Fáil won comfortably. The election campaign saw a serious escalation of rioting between IRA and ACA supporters. In April 1933, the ACA began wearing the distinctive blue-shirt uniform, so as to allow members recognise each other at meetings.

O'Duffy becomes leader

After de Valera's re-election in February 1933, he dismissed Eoin O'Duffy as Commissioner of the Garda; in July of that year, O'Duffy took control of the ACA, and re-named it the ''National Guard''. He re-modelled the organisation, adopting the few elements of the ideology and many of the symbols of European fascism. The use of the Roman straight-arm salute, the uniform, and the holding of huge rallies became widespread. Membership of the new organisation became limited to people who were Irish or whose parents "''profess the Christian faith''". O'Duffy was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and the Blueshirts adopted the creation of a corporate state as their chief political aim. This is an often misinterpreted move. In reality, O'Duffy's corporatism was much closer to the Vatican's than to Rome's.

Threatened 'March on Dublin'

In August 1933 a parade was planned by the ACA for Dublin, which was to proceed to Glasnevin Cemetery, but stopping briefly on Leinster lawn, in front of the Irish parliament building for speeches. The goal of the parade was to commemorate past leaders of Ireland, Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and Kevin O'Higgins. It is often claimed that there were masses of workers, republicans, socialists, trade unionists, communists and other committed anti-fascists ready to confront this ''March on Dublin'', but evidence for this is quite limited. It is clear that the IRA did intend to confront the blueshirts if they did march in Dublin.
De Valera banned the parade. Remembering Mussolini's ''March on Rome'', he feared a coup d'état, and told Fianna Fáil politicians decades later that, in late summer 1933, he was unsure whether the Irish Army would obey his orders to suppress the perceived threat, or whether it would support the Blueshirts (as a movement made up of many ex-soldiers). O'Duffy accepted the decision, and insisted that he was committed to upholding the Law. Instead, several provincial parades took place to commemorate the deaths of Arthur Griffith, Kevin O'Higgins and Michael Collins. De Valera saw this move as defying his ban, and the Blueshirts were declared an illegal organisation.
To conservative opponents of Fianna Fáil, who remembered the comments in 1929 of de Valera's right hand man, Seán Lemass, that the party was a "''slightly constitutional party''", in a hysterical frenzy they regarded this statement as the first steps towards a Fianna Fáil dictatorship. The protectors of Cumann na nGaedhael and of the National Centre Party were declared illegal, while the Irish Republican Army, who were mobilising against the fascist threat by breaking up their meetings and organising mass resistance, were allowed to remain legal and armed.
In response to the ban the National Guard, Cumann na nGaedheal and the National Centre Party merged to form a new party: on September 3 1933 ''Fine Gael - the United Ireland Party'' was founded. General O'Duffy became its first president with W. T. Cosgrave and James Dillon acting as vice-presidents. The National Guard became the ''Young Ireland Association'' and became part of a youth wing of the party. The party's aim was to create a corporate United Ireland, within the British Commonwealth. It is often claimed that they advocated a corporate state along the lines of Mussolini, but in reality, the vast majority of O'Duffy's policies were ostensibly Catholic in Nature, following the vocationalist ideas set out by the Pope.
Following disagreements with his Fine Gael colleagues, O'Duffy left Fine Gael. The majority of the blueshirts stayed in Fine Gael and became active members. O'Duffy went on and founded the National Corporate Party, and later fought on General Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War. In the end the adventure to fight with Franco was a disaster; in one particular engagement they were accidentally fired upon by Franco's troops, after which they returned to Ireland.

How fascist were the Blueshirts?

While it adopted the accoutrements of fascism, there has been much historical debate as to what extent the Blueshirts were an actual fascist movement proper. Irish President of the Executive Council (prime minister), Éamon de Valera, had little doubt that they fully intended to assume power in a wholly undemocratic manner. The mass mobilisation of workers, republicans of the IRA and Sinn Féin, socialists, trade unionists, communists of the Communist Party of Ireland and various other anti-fascists organised to confront the Blueshirt ''March on Dublin'', also had little doubt about their intentions.
O'Duffy is generally regarded as having aspired to be the Irish-version Mussolini, and is remembered as having adopted their symbolism at a time when fascism was popular and fashionable among conservative elements in Irish society, as they enthusiastically supported and promoted the concept of the corporate state.
Eoin O'Duffy and his Blueshirt movement are now sometimes seen as an embarrassment by these same conservative elements, especially following the defeat of Fascism in the Second World War and the appalling crimes of certain Fascist regimes coming to public light, evidenced by the horrors of the holocaust. O'Duffy's adventure by raising a volunteer group to aid the Nationalist movement of Franco in Spain against the socialist Republican government whose radical allies had been attacking the Church in Spain, was at the time enthusiastically supported and abetted by the Irish Catholic Church, Fine Gael, some of the press, and other conservative elements.
Today, ''Blueshirt'' is a term of political abuse directed against Fine Gael by opponents, as Fine Gael was founded by Eoin O'Duffy.
Manning, Cronin, and Bew are some historians who have criticized the notion of the the Blueshirts being a genuinely fascist organisation.

References

The most recent history of the Blueshirts is

★ Mike Cronin, The Blueshirts and Irish Politics

★ Michael O'Riordan. 1979 ''Connolly Column''. New Books Dublin. ASIN: B0006E3ABG

★ J. Bower Bell. 1983 ''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-52090-7.

★ Tim Pat Coogan. ''De Valera''.

★ Michael Farrell. 1980. ''. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0-86104-300-6.

★ F.S.L. Lyons. ''Ireland Since the Famine''.

★ Maurice Manning. ''The Blueshirts''.