Blue Shirt

1934: Ned Cronin, Eoin O'Duffy and Ernest Blythe (Left to right).

The League of Youth, widely known as the Blueshirts, was an Irish veteran organization formed by Ned Cronin, later transformed into a fascist political party under Eoin O'Duffy and finally consolidated with other parties into the now Christian-conservative Fine Gael. The organization was first formed by Ned Cronin as the Army Comrades Association in February of 1932. Ned felt that free speech was hindered by acts of political violence by the IRA of the time, and created the group as a security service of Irish veterans to protect political rallies and speeches. In 1932, the party claimed to be host to around 30,000 members, and in 1933 came under the leadership of Eoin O'Duffy - who then renamed the organization to be the "National Guard". Under O'Duffy, the organization adopted its fascist undertones for which they are known today, utilizing the Roman salute and donning the famous blue shirts that give them their name. O'Duffy restricted membership to Irish Catholics, the party's ideals under him were a corporatist state modeled after Mussolini's Italy.

Decline

In August of 1933, the National Guard planned to conduct an annual march on Dublin to commemorate Irish leaders Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins. Marxists and socialist elements of the IRA openly expressed that the march would be met with violence, but this would not be its end. Reportedly, then head of state Éamon de Valera was concerned by the popularity of the party -recalling the March on Rome by the Italian Blackshirts- and legally (though subversively) suppressed the march. O'Duffy obliged the ban of the march, and instead organized multiple smaller provincial marches. De Valera took this as an opportunity to eliminate the party, and banned it entirely, stating that these smaller marches had violated the constitutional ban.

In response, O'Duffy merged the remnants of the Blueshirts with other, tamer parties to create Fine Gael, renaming the National Guard to the Young Ireland Association, a part of the new party's Youth Wing. In 1934, O'Duffy left the party due to internal disputes. His position was taken by James Dillon, who was staunchly opposed to Fascism and later booted from Fine Gael in 1942 for his belief that Ireland should join the "allies" in the WWAC (At this time, O'Duffy was attempting to form an Irish brigade to fight on the Eastern Front)