The Republic's two scouting organisations have agreed to a possible merger, 70 years after the Catholic Boy Scouts was formed to rival the mainly Protestant Scouting Association of Ireland.
At separate meetings in Dublin and Waterford yesterday, the two bodies voted overwhelmingly to investigate establishing a new organisation to embrace both. Officers have been asked to report by the year 2000 with concrete proposals.
The two organisations have worked closely in recent years, hosting joint jamborees and changing their names to reflect a greater degree of unity.
While never formally a Protestant body, the SAI's association with military barracks and Protestant churches led to the founding of the rival body in 1927.
The SAI's membership is now 80 per cent Catholic, while the formerly-Catholic body is now also multi-denominational.