Blueshirts

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 (Irish: Na Léinte Gorma), 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.

Most of the political parties whose meetings the Blueshirts protected would merge to become Fine Gael, and members of that party are still sometimes nicknamed "Blueshirts". There has been considerable debate in Irish historiography over whether or not it is accurate to describe the Blueshirts as fascists.