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The Greenshirts was the name used for followers of Eoin O'Duffy's

Eoin O'Duffy

Eoin O'Duffy was in succession a Teachta Dála , the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army , the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, leader of the Army Comrades Association and then the first leader of Fine Gael , before leading the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during...

 openly fascist National Corporate Party

National Corporate Party

The National Corporate Party was a Fascist political party in Ireland founded by General Eoin O'Duffy in June 1935. It split from Fine Gael when O'Duffy was removed as leader of that party, which was originally founded by the merger of O'Duffy's Blueshirts, formally known as the National Guard or...

 following the split from Fine Gael

Fine Gael

Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...

. In 1936 O'Duffy led a volunteer Irish Brigade

Irish Brigade (Spanish Civil War)

The Irish Brigade , fought on the Nationalist side of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The unit was formed wholly of Roman Catholics by the politician Eoin O'Duffy, who had previously organised the banned quasi-fascist Blueshirts and openly fascist Greenshirts in Ireland...

 for Franco in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 and retired on his return. Without him both the Greenshirts and National Corporate Party faded away. Fine Gael became one of Ireland's main democratic political parties.

The Greenshirts are different from the better known Blueshirts which was the name used by O'Duffy's followers before the split in Fine Gael, although only eighty of the Blueshirts later became Greenshirts.

Other uses

The name has also been applied to the followers of other political groups that have adopted a green shirted uniform, notably the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was a political party in the United Kingdom. It grew out of the Kibbo Kift, which was established in 1920 as a more craft-based alternative for youth to the Boy Scouts....

, the French Agrarian movement of Henri Dorgères

Henri Dorgères

Henri-Auguste d'Halluin , known by the pseudonym Henri Dorgères, was a French political activist. He is best known for his Comités de Défense Paysanne....

, the Brazilian Integralists

Integralism

Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups...

, the Romanian Iron Guard

Iron Guard

The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...

, the Northern League of Italy, the Hungarian National Socialist Agricultural Labourers and Workers Party and the youth movement of the Spanish Popular Action

Popular Action (Spain)

Popular Action was a Spanish Roman Catholic political party active during the Second Spanish Republic.The group was formed after the fall of the monarchy in order to defend the interests of Roman Catholics in the new Spanish Republic...

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