Erskine Hamilton Childers

For other people with a similar name, see Erskine Childers (disambiguation).

Erskine H. Childers
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4th President of Ireland
In office 25 June 1973 – 17 November 1974
Preceded by	Éamon de Valera
Succeeded by	Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
Tánaiste
In office 2 July 1969 – 14 March 1973
Taoiseach	Jack Lynch
Preceded by	Frank Aiken
Succeeded by	Brendan Corish
Personal details
Born	Erskine Hamilton Childers (1905-12-11)11 December 1905 London, England
Died	Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Fianna Fáil
Spouse(s)	Ruth Ellen Dow (1925–1950) Rita Dudley (1952–1974)
Children	Ruth Ellen Erskine Barton Roderick Winthrop Margaret Osgood Carainn Nessa
Alma mater	Cambridge University (Trinity)
Religion	Church of Ireland

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, a leading Irish republican and author of the espionage thriller The Riddle of the Sands, was executed during the Irish Civil War.

Early life

Childers was born in the Embankment Gardens, 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 whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. 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. Childers was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, 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. After attending his father's funeral, Childers returned to Gresham's, then two years later he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge.

Career

File:Irishpres.jpg

Inauguration of Childers as President of Ireland, 25 June 1973.

After finishing his education, Childers worked for a period in a tourism board in Paris. In 1931, Éamon de Valera invited him to work for de Valera's recently founded newspaper, The Irish Press, where Childers became advertising manager. He became a naturalised Irish citizen in 1938. That same year, he was first elected as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for Athlone-Longford. He would remain in the Dáil Éireann until 1973, when he resigned to become President.

Childers joined the cabinet in 1951 as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in the de Valera government. He then served as Minister for Lands in de Valera's 1957–59 cabinet; as Minister for Transport and Power under Seán Lemass; and, successively, as Transport Minister, Posts and Telegraphs Minister, and Health Minister under Jack Lynch. He became 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 make 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.)

President of Ireland

Campaign

Fine Gael TD Tom O'Higgins, who had come within 11,000 votes (1%) of defeating de Valera in the 1966 presidential election, was widely expected to win the 1973 election when he was again the Fine Gael nominee. Childers was nominated by Fianna Fáil at the behest of de Valera, who pressured Jack Lynch in the selection of the presidential candidate. He was a controversial nominee, owing not only to his British birth and upbringing but to his Protestantism. However, on the campaign trail his personal popularity proved enormous, and in a political upset, Childers was elected the fourth President of Ireland on 30 May 1973, defeating O'Higgins by 635,867 votes to 578,771.

Presidency

Childers, though 67, quickly gained a reputation as a vibrant, extremely hard-working president, and became highly popular and respected. However, he had a strained relationship with the incumbent government, led by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave of Fine Gael. Childers had campaigned on a platform of making the presidency more open and hands-on, which Cosgrave viewed as a threat to his own agenda as head of government. He refused to co-operate with Childers' first priority upon taking office, the establishment of a think tank within Áras an Uachtaráin to plan the country's future. Childers considered resigning from the presidency, but was convinced to remain by Cosgrave's Foreign Minister, Garret FitzGerald. However, Childers remained detached from the government; whereas previously, presidents had been briefed by taoisigh once a month, Cosgrave briefed President Childers and his successor, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh on average once every six months.

Though frustrated about the lack of power he had in the office, Childers' daughter Nessa believes that he played an important behind-the-scenes role in easing the Northern Ireland conflict, reporting that former Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill met secretly with her father at Áras an Uachtaráin on at least one occasion.

Death

Prevented from transforming the presidency as he desired, Childers instead threw his energy into a busy schedule of official visits and speeches, which was physically taxing. On 17 November 1974, just after making a speech to the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, Childers suffered a heart attack. He died the same day at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.

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.

Memorial to Erskine Childers in St Patrick's Cathedral

Erskine Childers' Grave in Derralossary Church grounds, Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland.

Close up view of Erskine Childers' Grave in Derralossary Church grounds, Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland.

Succession

Childers' widow, Rita, shared her late husband's widespread personal popularity. Upon his death, when she issued a press statement pleading for the nation to keep the office above politics in choosing a successor, Cosgrave reacted by suggesting to the Opposition Leader, Jack Lynch, that they appoint Mrs. Childers to the presidency by acclamation. Lynch agreed four days after Childers' death to bring the suggestion to his party. However, when members of Cosgrave's Fine Gael disclosed the plan to the press on their own initiative, Lynch, believing his Fianna Fáil party was being denied a public voice in the decision, withdrew his support.

All parties instead agreed to appoint the former Attorney General and Chief Justice, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, as Childers' successor.

Family

Childers married Ruth Ellen Dow in 1925. They had five children, Ruth Ellen Childers, born in July 1927, Erskine, born in March 1929, followed by Roderick Winthrop Childers in June 1931, and in November 1937 twin daughters, Carainn and Margaret Osgood Childers. After the death of Dow in 1950, Childers married again, in 1952, to Rita Dudley. Together they had a daughter, Nessa, a former Labour Party MEP who currently sits as an independent member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Childers is survived by children from both his marriages. Rita Dudley died on 9 May 2010.

See also

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

Additional reading

• John N. Young, Erskine H. Childers: President of Ireland

External links

• Headstone at Derralossary Church

Oireachtas
Preceded by Matthew Davis (Fianna Fáil)	Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Athlone–Longford 1938–1948	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Longford–Westmeath 1948–1961	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Monaghan 1961–1973	Succeeded by Brendan Toal (Fine Gael)
Political offices
Preceded by Conn Ward	Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government 1944–1948	Succeeded by Brendan Corish
Preceded by James Everett	Minister for Posts and Telegraphs 1951–1954	Succeeded by Michael Keyes
Preceded by Joseph Blowick	Minister for Lands 1957–1959	Succeeded by Micheál Ó Móráin
New office	Minister without portfolio 23–27 July 1959	Office abolished
New office	Minister for Transport and Power 1959–1969	Succeeded by Brian Lenihan
Preceded by Joseph Brennan	Minister for Posts and Telegraphs 1966–1969	Succeeded by Patrick Lalor
Preceded by Frank Aiken	Tánaiste 1969–1973	Succeeded by Brendan Corish
Preceded by Seán Flanagan	Minister for Health 1969–1973
Preceded by Éamon de Valera	President of Ireland 1973–1974	Succeeded by Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh