On February 22nd members of the largest Youth Movement in the world celebrated their Annual Founders Day. Here we will have particular reason to celebrate as the Scout Movement in Ireland will be celebrating its centenary.

Yes, one hundred years of proud public service and commitment to young people unmatched by any other organization in the world. It is a Movement I have had the privilege to be a member of since I joined Donnybrook Cub Scouts in 1966.

Last year, Scouts and Guides in over two hundred and fifty countries marked the Centenary of World Scouting with an International Jamboree held in England.

That camp commemorated the decision of Robert Baden-Powell– or B.P. as he became known– to hold a camp for twenty boys on Brownsea Island off the coast of Dorset.

2007 also marked the centenary of the publication of the world’s second biggest publishing success, (only exceeded by the Bible), in English, ‘Scouting for Boys’.

Current membership of the World Organization of the Scout Movement stands at approximately 30 million young people and adults, with over ten million members in the Girl Guides.

Since 1907 it is estimated that well over 300 million people have at some stage donned the uniform and made the Scout or Guide Promise. The Scouting record of education, promotion and encouragement of young people stands unequalled by any other voluntary body.

Following the initial success of the concept in Britain, Scouting came to Ireland soon afterwards, with branches established in Dublin as early as 1908. The first recorded Scout meeting in Ireland took place in Dame Street in Dublin in February 1908. That event will be commemorated by the unveiling of a plaque on the site later this month.

For reasons, to do with our history, politics and the struggle for Independence, many Irish people were reluctant to join, or let their children join, what was perceived, to be a British, Unionist or Protestant body.

To counter this, and following some preliminary soundings by leading Catholic figures of the day, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy approved the establishment of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland. This new Association was formally launched in 1927.

Among the earliest Units was my own local Scout Group in Donnybrook, founded by Monsignor Daniel Maloney in 1927 which, to this day continues to thrive.

The new Association grew rapidly throughout the thirty-two counties and operated in parallel with the other Scout Association already in existence. For the next seventy-five years Ireland had two Scout Associations: the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and the successor to the formerly British-based, Scout Association of Ireland.

That division of Scouting in Ireland was finally healed in the early years of the new century. In the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement, Scouting played its role through the creation of a new 32-county, 40,000 strong, Scouting Ireland. The new body was an amalgam of the former two Associations.

The challenge for Irish Scouting now is to ensure that it continues to be as relevant and innovative as before and that the values and methods of Scouting are offered in a way accessible to and understood by the people, particularly the young people of Ireland.

Scouting in Ireland is well regarded in the wider movement and this is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the current Vice-Chairperson of the World Scout Movement is an Irish woman, Therese Bermingham, while the Chairman of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is another Irish woman Elspeth Henderson.

The main event marking the Irish Scouting Centenary will be Jamboree 2008 to take place in Puunchestown in August. This will be an enormous undertaking with approximately 10,000 young people, including several thousand from abroad sharing the unique Scouting experience in an Irish setting.

The Jamboree will require the support and encouragement of the various public bodies and the financial support of Government. Is it too much to ask that Government would contribute a significant sum to celebrate one hundred years of service?

So, congratulations Scouting. You have done our world much service. You have given hundreds of millions of young people, fun, friendship and challenge. Long may you grow and develop. Long may you forge peace, harmony and understanding in our world and long may you give the opportunities you gave me, to so many more in the future. Good Scouting.

Dermot Lacey is President of Donnybrook Scout Group and a former Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Clockwise from top left: ‘Scouting For Boys’ (1908); some members of the present-day Donnybrook Scout Group; how to light a fire from ‘The Scouting Trail’ (1964).