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The Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV) was an officially Ireland-wide, although in fact Belfast-based, militia group established in 1912. Initially adopting an officially politically neutral stance, it quickly became associated with unionism and opposition to the Irish Home Rule Movement. During the First World War it became closely linked to the Ulster Volunteers (UVF) before ultimately being subsumed by that group. Its name would later be resurrected by the YCV youth movement attached to the 1966 Ulster Volunteer Force (also UVF). Although there is no direct continuity between the two groups, they share the same emblem of a shamrock surmounted by a Red Hand of Ulster.〔Adrian Forty, Susanne Küchle, ''The Art of Forgetting'', Berg 2001, p. 181〕 ==Establishment== The YCV had its origins in the Belfast Citizens Association, a conservative ratepayers group.〔Timothy Bowman, ''Carson's Army: The Ulster Volunteer Force, 1910-22'', Manchester University Press, 2007, p. 25〕 The YCV had its first meeting just prior to the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant (Ulster), opposing Home Rule, in Belfast City Hall on September 10, 1912.〔Thomas Bartlett & Keith Jeffery, ''A Military History of Ireland'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 383〕 The group was inaugurated by Robert James McMordie in his role as Lord Mayor of Belfast and was led by Frederick Crawford.〔 Other leading figures in the group's foundation included Councillor Frank Workman and foundry owner James Mackie.〔 The group initially struggled to attract a Commanding Officer before eventually appointing Colonel R Spencer Chichster, a strongly right-wing Unionist who favoured purchasing guns for the YCV.〔 Although officially called the YCV of Ireland it had no members beyond Belfast.〔Bowman, ''Carson's Army'', p. 24〕 Each member was to pay 2s.6d (12.5 p) on joining the YCV and a further 6d (2.5p) each month as well as instalments on a £1.10s fee for purchase of their grey uniform.〔Bowman, ''Carson's Army'', p. 28〕 he was to attend weekly drills to learn "modified military and police drill, single stick, rifle and baton exercises, signalling, knot-tying and other such exercises". If possible, he was also to gain some knowledge of "life-saving and ambulance work". The constitution of the YCV insisted that members should not take part in any political meeting or demonstration. They were stated as being "non-sectarian and non-political"〔 and their objectives were considered to be: :''"..... to develop the spirit of responsible citizenship and municipal patriotism by means of lectures and discussions on civic matters.... to cultivate, by means of modified military and police drill, a manly physique, with habits of self control, self-respect and chivalry....to assist as an organization, when called upon, the civil power in the maintenance of peace".''〔Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, p. 49〕 Membership was open to anyone aged between eighteen and thirty-five who was over five feet in height and could present "credentials of good character". Some Roman Catholics did join the YCV, though it was overwhelmingly Protestant in numbers.〔Bowman, ''Carson's Army'', p. 65〕 Made up mainly of middle class members, the YCV was patterned after the Scout movement, albeit for young men who were too old for that group,〔 as well as the Boys' Brigade and Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade.〔Bowman, ''Carson's Army'', p. 26〕 The group was formed in part because the Territorial Force had not been extended to Ireland and members wanted a substitute.〔Andrew Totten, ''The Tenth: A Century of Scouting at the 10th Belfast'', 10th Belfast Scout Group, 2009, p. 13〕 The foundation of the YCV was hailed by the ''Northern Whig'', a Unionist daily paper, although the ''Irish News'', a nationalist paper, was less enthusiastic, speculating that the YCV had been set up as an organised strike-breaking force, with memories of the 1907 Belfast Dock strike still fresh.〔Bowman, ''Carson's Army'', pp. 26-27〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Young Citizen Volunteers (1912)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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