St Patricks Region History
Scouting in Ireland was divided into many separate regions in the country and St. Patrick's region was just one of many operating within the borders of our capital, Dublin.
St. Patrick's region covered much of the South West inner city area and was, at the time it came to an end, made up of six members: the 45th Mount Argus Scout Unit, the 91st Oblate Bluebell scout unit, the 35th Donore Avenue Scout Unit, the 61st Merchants Quay Scout Group, 41st Crumlin Scout Group and the 52nd Harrington Street. These were the only scout groups active in that area although the region also covered Rathmines and Driminagh who until recently also had Scout Groups.St. Patrick's region had a regional council which was made up from leaders of all six Groups and met on average once per month. The regional council chairperson was at the time it ended Mr. John Coffey of Merchants Quay and the Regional commissioner was Mr. Frank Tracy also of Merchant's Quay. At these regional councils meeting's common topic's of discussion included training regimes, Regional activities and other such activities and also how each Unit was getting along. By holding these meetings and activities it was generally hoped that a spirit of friendliness and co-operation would be developed between each unit guaranteeing a bright future for the region as a whole.
Every year the assistant regional commissioners (a.r.c.'s) of each section organised a programme of activities for that section which in turn were run with the help of all unit's involved. Every year this programme was altered and tweaked to keep up with current trends but generally the following events were on the cards every year: the Regional Quiz, The Regional Fun day, the Regional Football competition and of course the Regional Shield. Some of the other events that have been run in the past include a Regional Orienteering Challenge, a Regional Patrol Leaders training course / forum and other such activities.
The highlight of the Regional year for the Scout Section however was the Regional Shield. This was a fiercely contested competition which saw the winning Patrol and runner up Patrol getting the chance to go on to the Melvin competition which was the National Campcraft competition at the time. The Regional Shield is a weekend long competition during which the scouts are awarded points for successfully completing in activities such as backwoods cooking, pioneering, Morse code, Campcraft skills and general scouting abilities. The Regional Shield also encompasses the Regional Hike and the Pearse Butler Memorial Shield. The Regional hike is normally held on a separate weekend and is held in expedition style conditions i.e. staying in tents, cooking meals on trangia's and so on. Each patrol is marked on a number of Hiking disciplines and these marks are added onto the marks for the Regional Shield. The Pearse Butler Memorial Shield is an award given to a Patrol who show particular skill in a certain discipline. Each year it is decided that the Pearse Butler shield will be awarded for excellence in ,say for instance, First Aid and then whichever patrol got the most Marks For their First Aid Skills would be presented with the shield at the end of the weekend. It is extremely rare for the winner of the Pearse Butler Shield not to win or at least come second in the Regional Shield and in quite a few cases the honour has been shared between the winners and the runners up.