Blueshirts
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The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but best known by the nickname the Blueshirts, was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded as the Army Comrades Association in Dublin on 9 February 1932. The group provided physical protection for political groups such as Cumann na nGaedheal from intimidation and attacks by the IRA. Some former members went on to fight for the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War after the group had been dissolved.
O'Duffy with Blueshirts. (Women members were termed"Blue Blouses.")
Eoin O'Duffy speaking at a rally in 1934
Ned Cronin had been with the Blueshirts from the start, before O'Duffy joined. Following O'Duffy's failed attempt to control Fine Gael, the Blueshirts split into pro-O'Duffy and pro-Cronin factions. Cronin's faction remained in Fine Gael while O'Duffy's departed
All dressed in Blueshirt attire, Ned Cronin (left) and Eoin O'Duffy (centre) flank Ernest Blythe on the right, in this photograph from c. early 1934.
National Army (Ireland)
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The National Army, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Free State army or the Regulars, was the army of the Irish Free State from January 1922 until October 1924. Its role in this period was defined by its service in the Irish Civil War, in defence of the institutions established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Michael Collins was the army's first commander-in-chief until his death in August 1922.
National Army soldiers aboard a ship during the Civil War
Wedding of Major Michael Joseph Bishop and Patricia Foley, 1924. "Major" Bishop (ranks were not fully standardised in the 1920s) was actually a colonel, as indicated by the three dark bands on his collar.