The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later named the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but better known by the nickname The Blueshirts (Irish: Na Léinte Gorma), was a short-lived far right-wing organisation in the Irish Free State in the early 1930s. The practical purpose of the organisation was to provide physical protection for political groups such as Cumann na nGaedheal from intimidation and attack by the anti-Treaty IRA.[1] Some of its members would go on to aid the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
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".