part of the Scout Method. The association also operated a Sea Scout section, stemming from its origins in the Port of Dublin Sea Scout Association. These groups wore a uniform distinct from that of other Scouts and utilised a version of the Scout method which was based heavily on a nautical framework. Sea Scouts could be said to descend from a naval tradition as opposed to the military tradition from which Scouting in its purest form originated. In 1968, the SAI became a co-educational association. This was in line with the proliferation of co-educational schools in Ireland beyond the niche which they had traditionally occupied. This trend has continued, with females now making up some forty percent of the membership of the SAI's successor, Scouting Ireland Lough Dan in Roundwood, County Wicklow served as the associations national campsite. Located beside the lake of the same name, the site offered amenities including sailing, kayaking, archery, orienteering and mountaineering as well as maintaining an extensive bivvi site in the forests above the site. A national jamboree was hosted in Lough Dan in 1997. The site remains a part of Scouting Ireland's national campsite network alongside Larch Hill, Mount Melleray, Killaloe National Scout Water Activity Centre and Castle Saunderson. Chief Scouts Until 1949, Ireland was a kingdom, later an independent state within the British Empire and subsequently the British Commonwealth. As such the SAI shared a common Chief Scout with the other Scout associations of the nations under Commonwealth rule. Most notably, for the first thirty-three years of its existence, the associations Chief Scout was the father of Scouting, Robert Baden-Powell. As Ireland gained independence from the Commonwealth, the SAI became independent of the Scout Association in Britain and therefore maintained its own Chief Scouts. The following people were the Chief Scouts of the SAI up until the creation of Scouting Ireland in 2004: 1908–1941: Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell 1941–1944: Arthur Somers-Cocks, 6th Baron Somers 1945–1949: Thomas Corbett, 2nd Baron Rowallan 1949–1965: Mervyn Wingfield, 9th Viscount Powerscourt 1966–1973: Ernest Judge 1973–1980: Commodore Thomas McKenna 1980–1984: Joseph McGough, S.C. 1984–1991: Eoghan Lavelle 1991–1997: Kenneth Ramsey 1997–2004: Donald Harvey See also Lough Dan Scouting Ireland (CSI) Scouting Ireland Irish Scout Jamboree References Scouting Ireland Youth organisations based in the Republic of Ireland Youth organizations established in 1908 Organizations disestablished in 2004 1908 establishments in Ireland