HBU at this time has been unable to find much information about the Irish Scout movement and Irish Scout uniforms, but would be very interested in any more detailed infornation HBU visitors could provide. After Lord Baden Powell published his book Scouting for Boys in fortnightly parts in 1908, Scout Groups started spontaneously throughout Great Britain. Within a few months Scouting also started in Ireland, which at that time was part of the United Kingdom. We also wonder about the Irish scouts which may have been seen as an English movement at first. Presumably most Catholic boys in the 1900s and 1910s could not have afforded to paticipate. Thus began to change with the creation of the Irish Free State in the early 1920s.

Historical Background

Scouting

After Lord Baden Powell published his book Scouting for Boys in fortnightly parts in 1908, Scout Groups started spontaneously throughout Great Britain. Within a few months Scouting also started in Ireland, which at that time was part of the United Kingdom. The popularity of Scouting may have been limited in Ireland, except in Ulster, at first as it could haved been preceived as a British group. The poverty of Irish Catholic families would have been another limitation. The image of the Scouts must have changed in the 1920s when the Irish Free State was created and the Catholic church began to play an important role in Scouting.

Cubbing

Sea scouting

From the earliest times some Scout Groups included boating in their programmes, and B.P. realised that this was a very useful extra programme activity. His brother Warrington, a well known yachtsman, wrote "Sea Scouting for boys" in 1910, to help these boating orientated groups. From this development came the first recognised Sea Scouts, although some Troops did not become officially registered as Sea Scouts until some time later.

Figure 1.--Sea Scouting has become a major component of Irish Scouting. The Irish Sea Scouts are pictured in the 1970s.

In Ireland the first Sea Scout Troops were registered in 1912. The 1st Port of Dublin Sea Scouts had apparently existed as a Boy Scout Troop from about 1909, and the Troop has been in continuous existence since then.

A number of other Sea Scout Troop developed in Dublin in the succeeding years, and were organised into the "Port of Dublin Sea Scout Local Association" which was not merged with the Dublin county Scout Administration until 1948.

In 1914 the first Sea Scout Regatta was held, consisting rowing and swimming races. The oldest trophy in Ireland - The Wood Latimer Cup - was competed for in that first regatta, and is still the premier trophy in the Sea Scout Annual Rowing Regatta. The most prestigious trophy is the Fry Cup--which his was presented in 1918 for a seamanship competition, which also has continued to the present day.

The subsequent growth of Sea Scouting was very slow. There were never more than five or six Sea Scout troops in the Dublin area until the late 1930s. Sea Scouting made little or no progress outside Dublin. There was for a while a Sea scout Patrol in a boy Scout troop in Cork. By 1948 Sea Scouting had almost disappeared. There were only two troops left - 1st Port of Dublin (Ringsend) and 4th port of Dublin (Dodder) with a total membership of about forty boys.

Then, very slowly at first, the numbers started to increase, and during the late 1960s and early 1970s the growth of the Sea Scouting section spearheaded the increasing development of Scout Association of Ireland in general. The first full Sea Scout Troop outside Dublin was 1st Wexford(New Ross). From two troops in 1948 we grew to four troops in 1958, to twelve troops in 1968. Thirty-eight in 1978. In the 70s Sea Scouting accounted for about 33 percent of the Scout Section.

Associations

There were two scouting groups in Ireland, the Catholic Boy Scouts (CBSI) and the Scout Association of Ireland (SAI). I'm not sure why Ireland has a separate Catholic scout association as most Irish are cathloics. The largest Protestant population is in the north, but this is Ulster which is currently part of the United Kingdom.

At the time of independence (the 1920s), the Catholic Boy Scouts was set up. The Scout Association of Ireland was already in existence, but it was seen as having an English orientation. It thus became the "non-Catholic" group, i.e. Protestant/Jewish. This identification has lasted to this day as the CBSI still insist on the boys being Catholic to join.

Organization

Irish Scouts have the same basic age-level gropings of most Scout groups around the world.

Cub Scouts

Cub Scouting SAI is one section within the Scout Association of Ireland. Cub Scouting is at present the largest section within SAI. It provides an active and educational program for boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Cub Scouting is open to all, regardless of race or creed, in accordance with the principles and method conceived by our founder Robert Baden Powell. The Cub pack is organised into a number of sixes. Each six is a collection of approximately six cubs, led by a Sixer (who in turn is aided by a Seconder). The Sixer and Seconder are chosen each year from the more experienced cubs. Within the pack the sixes often compete between each other.

Sea Cubs are members of the Cub Scout Section of SAI who belong to a group in which there are Sea Scouts. They follow the same programme as other Cubs but in the Arrow Progress Scheme they choose options relating to the sea and water skills. All Cubs may choose these options but Sea Cubs have specific options related to water activites in their Progress Badges which will better prepare them to become Sea Scouts.

Scouts

Scouts are boys 11 to 15 years old.

Sea scouts

Sea Scouting Ireland is part of the Scout Association of Ireland. At present the are approximately 1,500 Sea Scouts in Ireland.

Venture scouting

Ventures Scouting is for boys and girls from 15 to 18.

Uniforms

One report from an Irish scouter suggests that uniform decissions, at least in the 1970s, were a unit decission--especially whether long or short pants would be worn.

Figure 2.--The Irish CBSI Cubs wear the short pants uniform in the 1970s as part of a school group.

Cub uniform

An Irish Scouter reports that during the 1970s as a Cub, he and his other Cubs didnt think much about the uniform. No one said much about short pants as they all had to wear shorts to school anyway. Modern boys seem much more concerned about the clothes they wear.

Irish cubs in the 1970s had schoolboy style peaked caps. Most all Cubs wore short pants uniforms. One Irish scouter reports, "For cubs I dont remember any units wearing long pants, we all wore shorts." There were two scouting groups in Ireland, the Catholic Boy Scouts (CBSI) and the Scout Association of Ireland (CBSI). The CBSI cubs wore navy tops with navy shorts and grey knee socks, see attached picture. The SAI cubs wore green tops with grey shorts.

Cub Scouts in the 1990s wear a uniform consisting of a green jumper, grey trousers and a group scarf (neckerchief). Most Irish cub units in the 1990s permit long pants. As explained under Sea Cubs they may wear navy blue jumpers and trousers, the rest of the sea cub uniform and their badges are the same as for the rest of the SAI Cub Scouts. As Shown on the diagrams below the progress (tenderfoot and arrow) badges are worm on the left arm. Caps are optional.

Figure 3.--The Irish Scouts are pictured in the 1970s uniform. It consisted of berets, green shirts, tan shorts, and kneesocks.

Scout uniform

Irish Scouts in the 1970s wore berets, green shirts, tan shorts, and kneesocks with a colored band. One Irish scouter reports that, "I was a CBSI cub. When I progrssed to CBSI scouts I was in a school unit and we still wore shorts, light blue shirt with navy shorts and grey knee socks." The situation was much the same in the SAI scout units. An Irish scouter reports, "My neighbour was in the SAI and his scout uniform was green shirt with grey shorts and grey knee socks." Only about 50 percent of the scout units wore shorts by the early 1970s. One Scouter notes,"In our Scouts group, we thought that shorts in the winter were a bit of a drag, especially as we got older and stopped wearing shorts to school. We were a bit envious of the boys in units allowed to wear longs, but didn't discuss it much." He adds, "We prefered knee socks and mostly wore black shoes in the winter and sandals in the summer, but I dont recall any regulations about shoes." As for caps, the CBSI had blue army style berets.

All the scout units in the 1990s wear long pants uniforms.

Some Irish Boy Scouts wear dark green or yellow saffron kilts for special outings like camping or in dancing comprtitions and of course Jamborees.

Venture Scouts

An Irish scouter reports than in his unit during the 1970s, "Only when you went to venture scouts were you finally allowed to wear long pants, at about age 16."

Sea Scouts

Irish Sea Scouts in the 1970s wore blue ski caps with a red pom. There uniform was a dark blue shirt and shorts worn with blue kneesocks that had red bands.