Young Citizen Volunteers (1912)

The Young Citizen Volunteers of Ireland, or Young Citizen Volunteers (YCV) for short, was an Irish civic organisation founded in Belfast in 1912. It was established to bridge the gap for 18 to 25 year olds between membership of youth organisations—such as the Boys' Brigade and Boy Scouts—and the period of responsible adulthood.^[1] Another impetus for its creation was the failure of the British government to extend the legislation for the Territorial Force—introduced in 1908—to Ireland.^[1] It was hoped that the War Office would absorb the YCV into the Territorial Force, however such offers were dismissed.^[1] Not until the outbreak of World War I did the YCV—by then a battalion of the UVF—become part of the British Army as the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.^[1]

The YCV was launched in Belfast City Hall on 10 September 1912 at a meeting chaired by the Lord Mayor, Robert James McMordie, who became its first president.^[1] The ideals of the YCV at its onset was stated as being "non-sectarian" and "non-political", and despite its leadership and membership being largely drawn from unionist families it included prominent Belfast nationalist Francis Joseph Biggar as part of its committee.^[1] The creation of the YCV had nothing to do with the Home Rule Crisis or Ulster Day on 28 September 1912, which saw the signing of the anti-Home Rule Ulster Covenant.^[1] However, by May 1914 the YCV—despite some controversy—merged with the anti-Home Rule Ulster Volunteer Force.^[1]

Despite its name implying that it covered the whole of Ireland it never extended outside of Belfast, however there were plans to set up battalions in places such as counties Londonderry and Fermanagh.^[1]

The YCV's name was later 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.^[2]