This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts, globally one of the most successful and enduring organisations dedicated to helping young people grow into happy, helpful and self-reliant adults. It is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of the movement's founder, Robert Baden-Powell. Celebrations began on Founder's Day, February 22nd, and will continue for much of this year, including the World Scout Jamboree 2007 in July and August at Hylands Park in England. Irish scouts will participate fully in the events.
Scouting here has a long and proud tradition: the first scout troop was founded within a year of Baden-Powell's experimental first summer camp at Brownsea Island in Dorset in 1907. While the first scouts in Ireland were avowedly multi-denominational at inception, cultural and social realities conspired to make things otherwise. But three years ago, a sectarian divide was closed finally with the coming together of the Scout Association of Ireland and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland into one organisation, Scouting Ireland.
Some 40,000 youngsters are involved, making Scouting Ireland one of the largest youth organisations on the island. Despite the vagaries of fashion, the best of scouting is still expressed in its founding principles: that young people learn best by doing, by observing and deducing; that they should respect themselves and others; cherish the world about them (scouts were environmentalists long before natural history and recycling found their way into the classroom); and achieve fulfilment by striving to do their best and not necessarily by being the best. These principles are set down in Baden-Powell's Scout Law and Scout Promise. Despite minor variations to take account of localised customs and differences, both remain remarkably close to what he decreed in his 1908 handbook, Scouting For Boys. The key phrase in the Promise is that a scout "will do my best to help others, whatever it costs me".
The Scout Law articulate values that, with some variations (scouts in many countries now include girls), have stood the test of time. A scout's honour is to be trusted; a scout is loyal; a scout's duty is to be useful and to help others; a scout is a friend to all. . . no matter to what social class the other belongs; a scout is courteous; a scout is a friend to animals; a scout obeys orders; a scout smiles and whistles; a scout is thrifty; and a scout is clean in thought, word and deed. There is for sure in these an echo of a time past but for over 100 years, the end result has proven its value to society.