Edward J. Cronin, was an Irish army officer, senior member of Fine Gael and a leader of the Blueshirts.
Ned Cronin in blueshirt attire
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.
