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This article serves as an introduction to a special issue of Irish Economic and Social History (Volume 47) that illuminates the diversity of childhoods experienced by children growing up in Ireland and in the Irish diaspora between the mid sixteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The article explores the development of the history of children and childhood in Ireland as a growing area of academic enquiry and discusses the problems and challenges associated with studying children and childhood in the past. It also contextualises the articles included in the special issue of the journal, which demonstrate how age, class, gender, geography, religion and ethnicity combined with adult control to influence the lives of children ranging from infancy to early adolescence. Adult control was reflected in decisions made regarding the feeding, fostering, educating, employing, entertaining and punishing of children. Such decisions could have lifelong consequences for the children concerned. This introductory article highlights the central role of adults in influencing, controlling and representing children's lives but also provides insight into the diverse experiences of Irish childhoods during five centuries.

It all began with a love of books. Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969), one of the earliest chairmen of the Whitechurch Library Committee, is best known for his career as an Irish advanced nationalist leader between 1900 and 1916. Hobson's lifelong love of books is a thread that links his early attraction to the nationalist movement to his future involvement with the Whitechurch Library and other activities related to the printed word. In addition to co-founding such advanced nationalist organisations as the Dungannon Clubs, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Volunteers, he was also a leading figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and Sinn Féin. However, his disapproval of what he considered to be an untimely rebellion in 1916 and his evasion of arrest in the aftermath of the Easter Rising helped to scuttle what appeared to be a promising political career in an independent Ireland. After the Rising, Hobson worked in book publishing before becoming a civil servant. In his spare time he participated in efforts to build up the new state culturally and economically.

Ireland, like other European countries, witnessed the rise of 'pseudo-military' youth groups in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These organizations were not only a manifestation of the cult of discipline, training and manliness that grew out of the anxiety about the coming war, but also, perhaps, a reaction to a widely perceived fin-de-siècle 'decadence' (Fitzpatrick, 1996: 382-3). In the early years of the twentieth century, many Germans worried that 'middle-class boys were effeminate' and 'the country lacked virile soldiers' (Donson, 2010: 49). Similarly, the British army's poor performance against a force of South African farmers during the Boer War (1899-1902) had provoked much concern that Britain was in a state of decline. Fearing that they were losing their competitive edge in industrial and military affairs and that their populations were deteriorating both physically and morally, western countries like Germany and Britain began to concern themselves with the health, education and moral welfare of the new generation (Heywood, 2005: 29-30). The establishment of uniformed youth groups was one way of dealing with the perceived problem.

In 1909 two Irish Protestant nationalist activists, Countess Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) and Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969), established a nationalist youth organisation called Na Fianna Éireann, or the Irish National Boy Scouts.2 The foundation of the Fianna was an Irish nationalist manifestation of the proliferation of 'pseudo-military youth groups' that occurred in many western countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These groups were not only part of the cult of discipline, training and manliness that grew out of the menace of the coming war in Europe,3 but also a reaction to a widely-perceived fin-de-siècle 'decadence'. For instance, the British Army's poor performance against a force of South African farmers during the Boer War (1899-1902) provoked much concern that British men were in a state of decline. Fearing that they were losing their competitive edge in industrial and military affairs and that their populations were deteriorating both physically and morally, western countries like Britain began 'to look to the health, education and moral welfare of the rising generation'.4 The establishment of youth groups was one way of dealing with the perceived problem.

The kidnapping of nationalist leader Bulmer Hobson is one of the more intriguing sideshows of the Easter Rising of 24-9 April 1916. The Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)1 was responsible for planning and leading the weeklong rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann participated in the rising, which mainly took place in Dublin. The British authorities later executed sixteen men, including the seven members of the Military Council, for their involvement in the insurrection.2 Hobson has the dubious distinction of having been held against his will by his IRB comrades from the afternoon of Good Friday, 21 April 1916 until the evening of Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the day the rebellion broke out.

This article examines the establishment and development of Na Fianna Éireann, or the Irish National Boy Scouts, in the period 1909-16. It also assesses the contributions of the organisation's two founders Countess Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) and Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969) in the early years of its existence. Bureau of Military History witness statements, a key source for the history of the Fianna, indicate that a degree of controversy surrounds the relative importance of the pair in the foundation and control of the Fianna movement.