[3][non-primary source needed][failed verification] An earlier "Fianna" was organised "to serve as a Junior Hurling League to promote the study of the Irish Language" on 26 June 1902 at the Catholic Boys' Hall, Falls Road, in West Belfast, the brainchild of Bulmer Hobson.

[4][5] Hobson, a Quaker influenced by suffragism and nationalism, joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1904 and was an early member of Sinn Féin during its monarchist-nationalist period, alongside Arthur Griffith and Constance Markievicz.

[8] After discussions involving Hobson, Markievicz, suffragist and labour activist Helena Molony and Seán McGarry, the Irish National Boy Scouts changed their name to Na Fianna Éireann at a meeting in 34 Lower Camden Street, Dublin, on 16 August 1909 (the building today marked with a commemorative plaque), at which Hobson was elected as president (thus ensuring a strong IRB influence), Markievicz as vice-president and Pádraig Ó Riain as secretary.

[10] In 1913, a Fianna instructional handbook was published and produced by Pádraig Ó Riain with articles being contributed by Patrick Pearse[11] and Roger Casement,[12] as well as advertisements from suppliers of uniforms and equipment.

[14] The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) focused on recruiting any members who had reached the age of seventeen, and in 1912, Hobson started an IRB circle within the Fianna named the John Mitchel[15] Literary and Debating Society,[16] whose members included Colbert, Ó Riain, Heuston, Garry Holohan, Desmond Ryan, Liam Mellows and Barney Mellows.

[citation needed] Among the first shots fired during the Rising were by Fianna members who attacked and captured the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park.

In Galway, Liam Mellows was in command of activities, but escaped capture and got to the United States, where he raised help for the War of Independence.

A provisional governing committee was set up in Dublin in May 1916, whose members included Eamon Martin, Seamus Pounch, Theo Fitzgerald, Liam Staines, and Joe Reynolds.

In February 1917, a section of the Fianna marched in full uniform to mass at Blanchardstown, County Dublin for Michael Mallin, who had been executed following the Easter Rising.

A large contingent of Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), including one ranked inspector, John Mills, arrived and the Riot Act was read to the crowd.

[24] He was sheltered by Constance Markievicz[25] then smuggled to the United States, where he remained until the Truce of 1921, and later fought with the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War.

[26] An intensive recruiting campaign was set in motion throughout the city and county after the earlier reorganisation of January 1917, and it proved to be a tremendous success.

[citation needed] It came to the attention of GHQ Staff c1918 that in many areas around the country the Fianna was controlled by the local units of the Irish Volunteers.

In a picture taken of the West Mayo Brigade Active Service Unit in 1921, ten of the thirty in the photograph had been members of the Westport Fianna Sluagh, as had Tom Derrig, who rose to the rank of Adjutant General during the Civil War.

In August 1922 (the same month in which Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith) died, the Fianna sustained a heavy blow when two of their senior officers in Dublin, Seán Cole and Alf Colley, were shot dead by Free State Army Intelligence members at The Thatch, Whitehall.

[citation needed] The bullet-riddled corpses of three teenaged Fianna Scouts, Edwin Hughes (17), Joseph Rogers (16) and Brendan Holohan (16), were found at The Quarries, Naas Road, Clondalkin on 28 November 1922.

Two former Fianna members made an attempt on his life in 1928, but Harling escaped and shot dead one of his attackers, Tim Coghlan of Inchicore.

In 1934, the Fianna Fáil government expanded the Free State CID, the new ranks were filled largely by enticing members of the IRA's Dublin Brigade to join the Special Branch of An Garda Síochána.

In 1938 an advisory body of prominent republicans was set up to help reorganise the Fianna; included were George Plunkett, Brian O'Higgins, Mary MacSwiney and Madge Daly.

The following year, Joe Atkinson of Belfast was appointed as a national organiser and cycled through the country contacting failed Fianna sluaithe and creating new ones.

In 1940, 150 Fianna marched in Dublin on the eve of the executions of two republicans responsible for a fatal bombing in Coventry, Barnes and McCormack in Britain.

Four sluaithe were reported active in Dublin and although the use of Hardwicke Hall was lost, newly released internees helped in the re-organization, including Wattie Bell, Noel and Des Goulding, Paddy Dillon and Mattie Carey.

Dick Bell was released from internment in 1945 and led the Fianna in Dublin, with Con Dillon as his adjutant and Mattie O'Neill as quartermaster.

The first annual camp of the new group was held in 1947 and later that year Carron and Bell cycled to Munster, organising Fianna sluaithe at Clonmel and Tralee.

[38] The uniform in 1958 was basically the same as when Fianna was founded in 1909: a green blouse with two rows of brass buttons, an orange neckerchief, slouch hat, black shorts and a white lanyard with a whistle.

Chief Scout Jimmy Cruise headed this body and it was decided to hold a camp in central Ireland for all Fianna sluaithe.

All of the committee were members of the GHQ, and included Liam MacAnUltaigh, Deasún Ó Briain, Brian Mulvanney, Uinsionn O'Cathain and Tony Shannon.

No one was detained, and most had alibis, as they were at an Ard Coiste meeting at Gardiner Place at the time of the assault and had been seen entering and leaving the building by the Special Branch men who constantly watched that premises.

In between all of these occasions, there were many times when the Fianna was invited to provide colour-parties and contingents in various parts of the country to commemorate fallen republican soldiers.

In 1969 two rival groups claimed the title of the Fianna Éireann; one composed of members under the control and influence of the Official movement who wanted to end the Sinn Féin abstentionist policy, and the other aligned to the re-organized Provisional Sinn Féin and IRA movement who supported a continuation of the traditional policy.