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Life
1905-1974; son of Erskine Childers [q.v.].; ed. Gresham School, and Trinity College, Cambridge where he met and married Ruth Dow in 1925, with whom 2 sons and 3 dgs; elected Fianna Fail TD for Athlone, Co. Longford in 1938; appt. Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, 1951; Minister for Lands, 1957; Minister for Transport & Power, 1959-69, and Tanaiste and Minister for Health, 1969-73; after the death of his wife he m. Margaret (“Rita”) Dudley [d. 2010], dg. of a Cork-born Dublin solicitor, 1952, press attaché to the British Embassy, whom a dg. Ruth and a son Rory; elected 4th President of Ireland, May 1973; died in office; his funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and the inability of the Catholic government ministers to enter the Protestant Cathedral, awaiting outside until the service was concluded, is the subject of a bitterly satirical poem by Austin Clarke; there is a memorial in St Patrick’s with a head by Cecil King; his son Erskine Barton Childers (1929-1996) became director of UNICEF; another son, Roderick Winthrop Childers, occupied the Chair of Cardiology at Chicago Univ.; his dg. Nessa (b. 1956) elected to the European Parliament (MEP) Ireland East, 2009; q.v.) DIB FDA
Works
Contrib. forward to Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde: The Dawn of the Irish Revolution and Renaissance, 1874-1893 (Dublin: Irish University Press 1974), xix, 232pp.
Criticism
John N. Young, Erskine Childers, President of Ireland (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1985), 224pp. Qry: Morris Gershlik, Erskine Childers and Israel with Particular Reference to the Arab Refugee Problem (London: Narod Press [1965]), 61pp.
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Quotations
Gaelic League: ‘[T]he movement which inspired and gave strength to the effort through which Irish nationality survived, Irish industries were founded and Irish independence and statehood grew.’ (Introduction to Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde, 1974, p.vii).
Commentary
Brian Inglis, Downstarts (London: Chatto & Windus 1990), prints a letter from Childers in response to a request from Raymond Chandler for permission to write on the death of his father in 1922: ‘Dear Brian[,] I have had an astonishing letter from Raymond Chandler, who I presume is the author of the lowest type of detective fiction, in which he wishes to write for the Spectator a detailed account of my father’s execution [..] (p.204-05.)’ Inglis further asks: ‘Has he ever indulged in decent respectable literature, as the Spectator does not seem to me to be his line at all?’ (p.160.)
Notes
Kith & Kin: Robert (“Bobby”) Childers was a br., settled in Scotland; also a sister Karen who has conducted a 10-year affair with John Kevany; his dg. Ruth had an affair with Brian Inglis [see infra]; while a medical student his son Rory diagnosed Brendan Behan as diabetic from his breath in Davy Byrne’s (ibid., p.184); a gd-dg. Nesta is married to the philosopher Ross Skelton (TCD).
Dedication, S. W. Jackman, Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman: a Victorian prelate and his writings (Dublin: Five Lamps Press [Dolmen] [1977]), ded. to E. H. Childers.
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