Fianna Eireann
It is well known that the British Empire had great influence on the areas in which it took control or responsibility for territory. Jamaica adopted cricket into their culture, Hong Kong adopted racing, while Westernization in culture and education was occurring in India and Africa. Britain also developed the organization of the Boy Scouts, which are still popular today in Canada as well as the United States to teach young boys and men survival and social skills. However, when Bulmer Hobsons organized his ‘Na Fianna’ he wanted to create an Irish model and get away from the British boy-scout model of Brayden Powell. In his ‘na Fianna’ Irish boys and girls were to learn of the Irish language as well as Irish history and traditional culture. Gaelic games, or sport, such as hurling, were encouraged among the young men who became members. Initially, under Hobsons, this group was small, did not drill, did not have uniforms and was strictly for educating the youth of Ireland about being Irish and how Ireland fit into the historical context of Europe.
However, it was Countess Constance Markievicz and Helena Molony that, after much deliberation with leaders in Sinn Fein, brought about the uniformed, militaristic and republican youth of Irish boy-scouts. Countess Markievicz even wrote and published a training manual for na Fianna, it was recognized as the best training manual available at that time. Young women were allowed to become members come 1911, however few actually joined. Under Constance Markievicz, Helena Moloney, Lady Gregory, as well as military men in Ireland such as Con Colbert (picture on the left) the boys who joined Fianna were taught to drill, instructed on how to safely shoot firm arms, taught to properly pitch tents, and taught how survive in the outdoors. Fianna na Eireann was officially founded in August of 1909 in order to train men in the traditions of Ireland and to take arms against Britain for the cause of Irish independence. Con Colbert was one of the drilling instructors for Fianna and shouted his commands in Gaelic, staying true to the revival of the Gaelic language. The instructors included the councilmen pictured above: Michael Lonergan, Padraig O’Riain, Con Colbert, and Eamonn Martin. These were the senior members of Na Fianna who brought the organization the instruction it needed going in the 20th century which called on many of the members in the rebellions and wars to come.
Come 1913 when the Irish Volunteers were looking for soldiers, it was the boys and men of Fianna na Eireann that were the experienced and relied upon men to join the movement. In the years leading up to Easter Rising, the men of Na Fianna were gun runners beginning in 1914. The men of na Fianna would take cart loads of guns to the ancient burial grounds of Howth and Kilcoole in order to store guns for future recovery when a rebellion was organized formally. During Easter Rising, many of the men who had joined the Irish Volunteers were given orders by the Irish Citizen Army and took up arms at Phoenix Park, the College of Surgeons in Dublin, as well as the movement of arms that they had stocked in the years prior. Some of the men, including the previously mentioned drilling instructor Con Colbert, were executed for their parts in Easter week. Patrick Pearse believed that without the na Fianna there would have been no Volunteers in 1913 and Easter Rising would not have been possible.
Following Easter Week of 1916, Fianna na Eireann was reorganized. The men continued to defy the British by ignoring the ban on marching and parading as they drilled openly in the streets with hurleys in open defiance. They continued their cause with patriotism for Ireland and fought in both the War of Independence as well as the Civil War. They openly denounced the Anglo-Irish Treaty, not wanting to take steps backward in the cause of independence that so many groups had been collaborating and working towards. Na Fianna was proscribed after the Civil War as it had sided with the Republicans. In its place Fianna Fail, an Irish Republican political party, was founded in a split from Sinn Fein.