Childers, [Robert] Erskine (1870-1922), novelist and politician. Born in London and educated at Cambridge, he fought in the Boer War in 1899, basing In the Ranks of the City Imperial Volunteers (1900) on it. The Riddle of the Sands (1903) is a fictional account of German preparations to invade England. He used his yacht Asgard to ship in German arms for the Irish Volunteers in 1914. He acted as secretary to the Treaty negotiations [see Anglo-Irish War] but sided with Eamon de Valera. He was sentenced to death for possession of a revolver and executed. His son, Erskine Childers (1905-74), became fourth President of Ireland.
Erskine Hamilton Childers
| Irish Literature Companion: [Robert] Erskine Childers |
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Robert Erskine Childers |
Childers, Robert Erskine (chĭl'dərz), 1870-1922, Irish politician and author. Born into a Protestant family, he was a clerk in the House of Commons (1895-1910). Gradually becoming convinced of the need for Irish Home Rule, he resigned to work for it, engaging in gun-running for the Irish Volunteers in 1914. After serving in the British forces during World War I, he represented the Irish cause at Versailles and was a member of the Irish delegation that negotiated the treaty with Britain (1921). By this time he was opposed to anything other than republic status for Ireland and urged rejection of the treaty. He fought in the Irish Republican Army in the civil war that followed the creation of the Irish Free State, and was court-martialed and shot as a traitor in 1922. Childers wrote on Irish politics and on military matters, but his best-known work is Riddle of the Sands (1903, repr. 1971), a spy novel. His son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, 1905-74, became a naturalized Irish citizen and a member of the Dáil in 1938. He held a succession of cabinet posts in the Fianna Fáil governments from 1944 on and in 1973 was elected president of Ireland.
Bibliography
See A. Boyle The Riddle of Erskine Childers (1977).
| Wikipedia: Erskine Hamilton Childers |
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| Erskine Childers | |
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| In office 25 June 1973 – 17 November 1974 |
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| Preceded by | Éamon de Valera |
| Succeeded by | Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh |
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| Born | 11 December 1905 London, England |
| Died | 17 November 1974 (aged 68) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Fianna Fáil |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Ruth Ellen Dow (d), (2) Rita Childers |
| Profession | politician |
For other people with a similar name, see Erskine Childers.
Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December 1905 – 17 November 1974) served as the fourth President of Ireland from 1973 until his death in 1974. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1938 until 1973. Childers served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (1951–1954, 1959–1961, and 1966–1969), Minister for Lands (1957–1959), Minister for Transport and Power (1959–1969), and Minister for Health (1969–1973). He was appointed Tánaiste in 1969.
His father Robert Erskine Childers was a leading Irish Republican and author of the espionage thriller The Riddle of the Sands, and was executed during the Irish Civil War.
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Early life
Childers was born in London, to a Protestant family originally from Glendalough, Ireland. Although also born in England, his father, Robert Erskine Childers, had had an Irish mother and had been raised by an uncle in County Wicklow, and after the First World War took his family to live there. His mother, Mary Alden Childers was a Bostonian that was from a family directly related to the Mayflower landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Robert Erskine Childers and his wife, Mary, later emerged as prominent and outspoken Irish Republican opponents of the political settlement with Britain which resulted in the establishment of the Irish Free State.[1] Childers was educated at Gresham's School, Holt,[2][3] and the University of Cambridge, hence his striking British upper class accent. In 1922, when Childers was sixteen, his father was executed by the new Irish Free State on politically-inspired charges of gun-possession.The pistol he had been found with had been given to him by Michael Collins. Before his execution, in a spirit of reconciliation, the older Childers obtained a promise from his son to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed the death warrant. [4] After attending his father's funeral, Childers returned to Gresham's[3], then two years later he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge[5].
Career
After finishing his education, he worked for a period in a tourism board in Paris until the then Taoiseach of Ireland Éamon de Valera invited him back to Ireland to work for the Irish Press. He became a naturalised Irish citizen in 1938. A member of Fianna Fáil, he held a number of ministerial posts in the cabinets of Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch, becoming Tánaiste in 1969. Erskine's period as a minister was controversial. One commentator described his ministerial career as "spectacularly unsuccessful". Others praised his willingness to take tough decisions. He was outspoken in his opposition to Charles Haughey in the aftermath of the Arms Crisis, when Haughey and another minister, both having been sacked, were sent for trial amid allegations of a plot to import arms for the Provisional IRA. (Haughey and the other minister, Neil Blaney, were both acquitted.)
In a political upset, Childers was elected the fourth President of Ireland on 30 May 1973, defeating Tom O'Higgins by 635,867 votes to 578,771. Childers, though 67, was a vibrant, extremely hard-working president who earned universal respect and popularity, in the process making the office of President a highly visible and useful institution. However, he died suddenly of a heart attack in November 1974, while making a public speech to the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.
Funeral
Childers's state funeral in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was attended by world leaders including the Earl Mountbatten of Burma (representing Queen Elizabeth II), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Opposition, and presidents and crowned heads of state from Europe and beyond. He was buried in the grounds of the Church of Ireland Derralossary church in Roundwood, County Wicklow.
Succession
Initially it was expected that President Childers' popular widow, Rita, would be offered the office of president to continue his work, but it went instead to the former Chief Justice, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh.
Family
Childers married Ruth Ellen Dow in 1925. After her death he was married in 1952 to Rita Dudley. Childers was survived by his second wife, and children from both his marriages. A son, Erskine Childers, by his first wife, was a UN civil servant and Secretary General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. A daughter by his second wife, Nessa Childers, was elected to the European Parliament for the Labour Party in 2009, representing the East constituency. His son, Rory W. Childers[6] is a practising cardiologist at The University of Chicago Hospital.
Notes
- ^ Young, John N., Erskine H. Childers, President of Ireland: a Biography (Gerrards Cross and Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Colin Smythe, 1985, ISBN 978-0861401956), pp. 5-7
- ^ Young, op. cit., p. 18
- ^ a b Benson, S. G. G., and Martin Crossley Evans, I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School, (James & James, London, 2002)
- ^ article in Time magazine
- ^ http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=425
- ^ http://www.uchospitals.edu/physicians/roderick-childers.html
References
- Official Republic of Ireland, Presidential Bio : http://www.president.ie/index.php?section=34&lang=eng
Additional reading
John N. Young, Erskine H. Childers: President of Ireland
See also
External links
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