Scouting Ireland - History

History

See also: History of SAI and History of CBSI

The Scouting Ireland organisation has its basis in two separate Irish Scouting organisations — the Scouting Association of Ireland (SAI), and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI). The former traces its roots to 1908, and the latter was founded in 1927 - both trace their legacy to Lord Baden-Powell's Scout Movement.

By 1908, the influence of Baden-Powell's Scout movement had spread from Great Britain to Ireland. The earliest known Scouting event in Ireland took place in the Phoenix Park in 1908 with members of the Dublin City Boy Scouts (later Scouting Ireland S.A.I.) taking part.

Because of the impacts to available leadership, the coming of the Great War in 1914 could have affected the viability of Scouting in Ireland. However, patrol leader members took over much of the leadership activities when adult leaders volunteered for active military duty. Scouts contributed to the war effort in several ways; notably the Sea Scouts, who took supported regular coast guardsmen.

In Dublin in the 1920s, two priests, Fathers Tom and Ernest Farrell, followed the progress of Scouting. They noted that in other countries, the Catholic Church had taken up the idea of Scouting. After some study and experimentation, they made a proposal to the Catholic Hierarchy of Ireland and were granted a constitution and Episcopal patronage in November 1926. Thus, the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) (Gasóga Catoilici na hÉireann) was created. The CBSI would later become the largest Scout association on the island.

When war (and The Emergency) came again in 1939, Scouts carried on under the direction of their patrol leaders, and undertook service tasks. Including acting as messengers, fire watchers, stretcher bearers, salvage collectors, etc.

In 1965, the CBSI joined with the Scout Association of Ireland to form the Federation of Irish Scout Associations, FISA. Through FISA, Irish Scouts were able to play a full part in international Scouting. Prior to this, because the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) traditionally recognises only one Scouting body in each country, only the SAI had been recognised by WOSM (since 1949). Similarly, the Northern Irish Scout Council (NISC) had observer status in the Federation, as the CBSI's membership extended across the 32 counties on the island of Ireland and WOSM usually only recognises associations that observe political frontiers.

Although aligned through FISA, these two separate Scouting organisations (the SAI and the much larger CBSI) operated as separate entities through the latter half of the 20th century. Then, on January 1, 2004, the two organisations were merged to form "Scouting Ireland". This followed a poll in May 2003, when both associations voted to join together to form a new single association. This in turn had followed from a 1998 decision to set this process in motion.

Scouting Ireland now has 37,692 members across the island of Ireland (as of 2011), including Northern Ireland, where it works in partnership with the Scout Association in Northern Ireland (Sani), a part of the United Kingdom Scout Association The Scout Association.

Local volunteers are now supported by a centralised full-time (professional) staff, who support the day to day running of the association.