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es, enroute to whom he had so gallantly defend- IRISH EXAMINER | January 25th, 2017
ed in print, and who now consid-
thing neither ves- ered him a political liability, no
longer of use to them.
or radio equip-
In November, 1922 Childers
f six was made up was arrested at his home in
Glendalough, Wicklow, where he
airman, Gordon had spent most of his privileged
childhood. He had been on his
fisherman from way to meet de Valera.

woman, his wife, On the flimsiest of evidence he
was charged with the possession
Mary-Spring-Rice, of a small revolver, actually a gift
from Michael Collins in happier
as an Anglo-Irish days, tried by a military court mar-
tial and sentenced to death.
cousin was the
While his appeal of his sentence
bassador to was still pending, he was executed
by firing squad at the Beggar’s
d of 900 rifles and Bush Barracks in Dublin.
of ammunition
yacht, every inch It has been said that he shook
vessel seemingly hands with every member of the
rms as Childers’s firing party before the sentence
to sea. was carried out. “Take a step or
Haven, in Wales, two closer, lads,” he joked, “It will
dropped off to be much easier that way.”
ut on the way out
Sea, bad weather Winston Churchill perhaps best
up, the worst expressed the British view of
ish Sea in thirty- Childers and his contribution to
the cause of Irish freedom: “No
a, in his book, Robert Erskine Childers at sea with his wife, Molly (Glendalough House) man has done more harm or done
h Rising of 1916, more genuine malice or endeav-
rce weather that temples bursting, he thought not After the armistice he returned He was now considered a pow- ored to bring a greater curse upon
crew encountered erful enemy of the Irish State. In the common people of Ireland
grasped the tiny of God, life, death, wife, children, to Ireland in 1919, where he one Freeman’s Journal he was than this strange being, actuated
g his knees in the described thusly: “ ... English by a deadly and malignant hatred
ned to die rather only of rifles, rifles, rifles.” became involved with Sinn Fein, fanatics like Mr. Erskine Childers for the land of his birth.”
ng and falling, his will urge them (the Anti-Treaty
Somehow he made it through closely associating with Eamon de IRA forces) on to burn, wreck and His wife, Molly, died in 1964,
destroy ... Mr. Childers had scru- and one of his sons, Erskine
the storm, soaking and half-dazed Valera and Michael Collins. ples, which Irishmen respected, Hamilton Childers, was the fourth
about shooting his own country- President of Ireland.
from exhaustion, but he had kept Appointed Director of Publicity man in the Anglo-Irish War ... he
has none at all about killing Irish The Asgard, in which he sailed
the Asgard afloat. He anchored ten for the First Dail, Childers was soldiers, and compassing the ruin into Howth and Irish history, was
of Irish voters who had the audac- used for many years as a sail train-
miles south east of Howth a day elected to the Second Dail in 1921 ity to reject him at the poles ... Do ing vessel in Ireland before being
Irregulars really relish their posi- stored in the yard of Kilmainham
before the scheduled landing and as a member for Wicklow. tion as the military puppets of this Gaol in 1979 and finally becoming
English ex-intelligence officer?” a permanent exhibit at the
went below to get some well- Childers would attend the National Museum of Ireland in
In the days after the deaths of 1997 where it remains today.
earned sleep. The next day he Treaty negotiations in London, Griffith and Collins, a government
crackdown on the dissidents Asgard II, a replica, was
made landing in Howth Harbor, serving as the Principal Secretary ensued, leading to much blood- launched in 1981, also for use as a
shed and tragedy on both sides, as sailing training vessel, but it sank
and was met by several hundred to the Irish delegation. He had comrades, who had once fought in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast
the British Empire to a stalemate, of France, in September 2008. C
cheering Volunteers who quickly never been a favorite of Arthur and had won, despite its faults, the
right to run, at least, the majority Sources: A Dictionary of Irish
unloaded the arms into waiting Griffith, who headed the delega- of their own country, now fought Biography-Henry Boylan: Rebels -
against each other, brothers The Irish Rising of 1916-Peter Derosa;
cars and taxis and headed for safe tion, and who had a strong dislike against brothers; friends against The Green Flag-Robert Kee; The Irish
friends; families against families. Civil War - An Illustrated History-
houses in Dublin where they and distrust of Childers (probably Helen Litton; Internet.
In this atmosphere Childers
would be stored for their rebellion. due to the fact that his father was was a hunted man and went on
the run, such as it was, with no
Childers, after twenty-three English). support from the Irregulars,

days at sea, had landed a blow Along with the others, Childers

against the Empire he had reluctantly signed the Treaty,

believed in so strongly as a although he vehemently opposed

younger man. it, and after the contentious

Oddly, perhaps, he would again debates in the Dail, in which

serve the crown in the First World Griffith verbally attacked him

War, as a seaplane observer along (some felt in an insulting manner),

the German coast, with which he he joined the Anti-Treaty side led

was familiar from his sailing days. by de Valera and became the voice

He also served in the of the Anti-Treaty “Irregulars”

Dardanelles during the Gallipoli with his propaganda sheet called

Campaign, where he scouted Poblacht na hEireann or Republic

Turkish positions, earning a of Ireland, criticizing the new Free

Distinguished Service Cross and a State government, led by Griffith

Hogan/National promotion to Lieutenant and Collins, in every issue and at

Commander. every turn.