![[Irish Blueshirts]](../images/i/ie}bshrt.gif)
Last modified: 2013-08-03 by rob raeside
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by
Tomislav Todorovic, 27 February 2012See also:
The flag of the Blueshirts, a short-lived Irish Fascist movement in the 1930's, is mentioned on the St. Patrick's Cross page, but only in a short notice, with no image attached. However, the increasing number of sources available on the Web now makes the reconstruction of their flag possible, and they reveal that the flag was also briefly used by the Fine Gael party. What follows is a complete story about this organization, together with an image of the flag.
In the 1932, the right-wing Irish organization called the Army Comrades
Association (Gaelic: Cumann Chomrádaithe an Airm) was founded by the former
members of the Irish National Army, in order to protect the supporters of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty, which was the basis for the formation of the Irish Free
State. The first leader was Thomas F. O'Higgins, a prominent member of the Cumann na nGaedheal party. In 1933, General Eoin O'Duffy became the leader
and renamed the ACA into the National Guard (Gaelic: An Garda Náisiúnta).
The members were always better known by their nickname "The Blueshirts"
(Gaelic: Na Léinte Gorma). The Blueshirts, at least on the surface, appeared
to be the Irish equivalent of the German Brownshirts or Italian
Blackshirts: they wore paramilitary-style uniforms, greeted each other with
the Roman salute, and participated in street violence and fights, usually
against the IRA. Although they didn't seem to follow all the Fascist
doctrines and practices and didn't engage in political terrorism - actually,
they were securing the the Cumann na nGaedheal events against their
opponents, in the name of defending the freedom of speech - the Blueshirts
were declared an extremist and illegal organization in 1933 by the Irish
government, then held by the opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and
supported by the former members of the IRA.
After the banning, the
National Guard has merged with the Cumann na nGaedheal and the National
Centre Party to form the Fine Gael party. The National Guard, renamed into
the Young Ireland Association, became part of the party youth wing. O'Duffy
was the first party president but, after serious disagreements with other
party leaders, resigned in 1934 and broke away to form the National Corporate
Party (Gaelic: Páirtí Náisiúnta Corparáidíoch), an openly Fascist
organization nicknamed the "Greenshirts" (Gaelic: Na Léinte Glasa), in 1935.
Only a minority of former Blueshirts followed him, though; most of them
remained in the Fine Gael, which soon distanced from the extremism and
evolved into a modern party of the center-right, the senior partner in
several coalition governments since 1948, the last (current) since 2011.
O'Duffy later led Irish volunteers to fight for the Nationalists in the
Spanish Civil War (1936-1937) and has had the contacts with the Third Reich's
diplomats during the World War II until his death in 1944, but his party was
defunct by the end of 1937.
The Blueshirts' flag, also used
by the Fine Gael for a short time, was charged with a red saltire of St
Patrick on the field in "St. Patrick's blue", the name which was used for
several shades of color in history, but seems to have originally meant sky
blue or a close shade and was used as such on the Blueshirts' uniforms and
flags as well: the contemporary photos, although black and white, clearly
show flags with dark saltire on light field and light shirts worn with dark
ties, trousers and caps, and the surviving Blueshirts' uniforms also have
light blue shirts. Wikipedia currently attributes a similar flag, only with
white field, to the Greenshirts, but this is yet to be verified.
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia page about the Blueshirts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueshirts
[2] Wikipedia page about Eoin O'Duffy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoin_O%27Duffy
[3] Wikipedia page about the
National Corporate Party:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Corporate_Party
[4] Wikipedia page about St. Patrick's blue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Blue
[5] Gentleman's Military
Interest Club - photo of Blueshirts' female members with the flag (WARNING -
shows numerous persons giving Roman salute):
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=78278
[6] Gentleman's Military Interest Club - photo of Eoin
O'Duffy in uniform:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=78276
[7] County Waterford Image Archive - photo of
Blueshirts in Tramore in 1934:
http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org/exhibit/web/DisplayWAIImage/K0xjvHCisivT2/
[8] County Waterford Image Archive - photo of Blueshirts in Carrick On Suir
in 1934:
http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org/exhibit/web/DisplayWAIImage/K0GRlforwardslash0RtforwardslashEnA/
[9] Gentleman's Military Interest Club - photo of a
surviving Blueshirts' shirt:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=113911
The described flag is shown in the attached image
above, which is created as a modification of the current Wikipedia
image of the Blueshirts' flag:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fine_Gael_historical_flag.svg which differs in
ratio and shade of blue, the latter being another shade which was called "St.
Patrick's blue" and the first seems not to be confirmed by the photos. It
shall be noted that the same shade of blue is shown at Vincent Morley's Flags
of Ireland website: http://home.connect.ie/morley/flags.htm.
The shade of
red may be discussed: Vincent Morley has opted for R, While I chose R+ which,
if the image is converted to grayscale, looks more like the shade from photo
[5]. The actual shade might have been somewhere between these two, as is
frequently the case in real world. The same photo also made me choose a wider
saltire than is usually shown and the ratio 2:3.
Tomislav Todorovic and Pete Loeser, 27 February 2012
