Erskine Childers (author)
Erskine Childers CIV, 1899 | |
---|---|
Teachta Dála | |
In office May 1921 – June 1922 | |
Constituency | Kildare–Wicklow |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Erskine Childers 25 June 1870 Mayfair, London, England |
Died | 24 November 1922 Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin, Ireland | (aged 52)
Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
Resting place | Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin |
Nationality | Irish |
Political party | Sinn Féin |
Spouse | |
Children | 3, including Erskine Hamilton |
Parent |
|
Relatives |
|
Profession |
|
Known for |
|
Robert Erskine Childers DSC (25 June 1870 – 24 November 1922), usually known as Erskine Childers (/ˈɜːrskɪn ˈtʃɪldərz/[1]), was an English-born Irish nationalist who established himself as a writer with accounts of the Second Boer War, the novel The Riddle of the Sands about German preparations for a sea-borne invasion of England, and proposals for achieving Irish independence.
As a firm believer in the British Empire, Childers served as a volunteer in the army expeditionary force in the Second Boer War in South Africa, but his experiences there began a gradual process of disillusionment with British imperialism. He was adopted as a candidate in British parliamentary elections, standing for the
As an author, his most significant work was the novel The Riddle of the Sands, published eleven years before the start of the First World War. Its depiction of a secret German invasion fleet directed against England influenced Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, into strengthening the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy. On the outbreak of the First World War Churchill was instrumental in calling Childers for service in the Royal Navy, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Childers was the son of British Orientalist scholar Robert Caesar Childers, the father of the fourth president of Ireland Erskine Hamilton Childers, the cousin of British politician Hugh Childers and of Irish nationalist Robert Barton, and the grandfather of the writer and diplomat Erskine Barton Childers and of the former MEP Nessa Childers.
Early life
Childers was born in
He was educated at home by tutors (with his brother Henry and cousin
Having stayed an extra year at Cambridge to gain a further degree (in law) Childers briefly entered
Sailing
Childers and his brother Henry had kept a small sailboat on
In 1903 Childers was again cruising in the Frisian Islands, in Sunbeam, a boat he bought in syndicate with William le Fanu and other friends from his university days. He was now accompanied by his new wife
Asgard was Childers's last and most famous yacht: in July 1914, he used it to smuggle a cargo of 900
War service
Boer War
As with most men of his social background and education, Childers was originally a steadfast believer in the British Empire. Indeed, for an old boy of Haileybury College, a school founded to train young men for colonial service in India, such an outlook on Childers's part was almost inevitable, although, privately, he did not accept completely the "conformist" values of the school.[22][23]
In 1898, as negotiations over the voting rights of British settlers in the
A
On 24 August, Childers was evacuated from the front line to hospital in
First World War
Gun running to Ireland
Childers's attitude to Britain's establishment and politics had become somewhat equivocal by the start of the First World War. He had resigned his membership of the Liberal Party, and with it his hopes of a parliamentary seat, over Britain's concessions to Unionists and a further postponement of Irish self-rule;[3] he had written works critical of British policy in Ireland and in its South African possessions; above all in the Summer of 1914 he had been a member of Mary Spring Rice's committee planning to smuggle guns bought in Germany to supply the Irish Volunteers in the south of Ireland, a "largely symbolic" response to the April 1914 Ulster Volunteers' importation of rifles and ammunition in the Larne gun-running.[33][3] Although in 1914 John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Volunteers, argued that in the case of war his movement would cooperate with the Ulster Volunteers in the defence of Ireland, thus allowing Britain to release troops from the country for the war in Europe, the committee's weapons were used against British soldiers in the Easter Rising of 1916.[34][35]
The members of the committee of eleven included, in addition to Spring Rice:
A week later, when war with Germany was declared, Childers was in Dublin, writing articles for American newspapers to exploit the success of the operation.
At that stage, Childers still believed that a self-governing Ireland would take its place as a dominion within the Empire and so he was easily able to reconcile himself to the belief that fighting for Britain in defence of nations under threat from Germany was the right thing to do.[45][3] In mid-August 1914 he responded to the Admiralty telegram and volunteered for service. He received a temporary commission as lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.[46] Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, although hostile to spending money on armaments at the time The Riddle of the Sands was published, later gave the book the credit for persuading public opinion to fund vital measures against the German naval threat, and he was instrumental in securing Childers's recall.[47][48]
Childers's first task was, in reversal of the plot of The Riddle of the Sands, to draw up a plan for the invasion of Germany by way of the
He was sent back to London in April 1916 to serve in the Admiralty where, because he understood the requirements of airmen, his work included the mundane task of allocating seaplanes to their intended ships.
Irish Convention
In July 1917, the year following the Easter Rising,
Royal Air Force
On his return to London in April 1918, Childers found himself transferred into the newly created
Marriage
In autumn 1903, Childers travelled to the
Childers returned to London with his wife and resumed his position in the House of Commons. His reputation as an influential author gave the couple access to the political establishment, which Molly relished, but at the same time she set to work to rid Childers of his already faltering imperialism.[66] In her turn Molly developed a strong admiration for Britain, its institutions and, as she then saw it, its willingness to go to war in the interests of smaller nations against the great.[67] Over the next seven years they lived comfortably in their rented flat in Chelsea, supported by Childers's salary—he had received promotion to the position of parliamentary Clerk of Petitions in 1903—his continuing writings and, not least, generous benefactions from Dr. Osgood.[68][69]
Molly, despite a severe weakness in the legs following a childhood skating injury,[70] took enthusiastically to sailing, first in Sunbeam and later on many voyages in her father's gift, Asgard.[69] Childers's letters to his wife show the couple's contentment during this time.[3][71] Three sons were born: Erskine in December 1905, Henry, who died before his first birthday, in February 1907, and Robert Alden in December 1910.[72]
Writing
Childers's first published work was some light detective stories he contributed to The Cambridge Review while he was editor.[73]
In the Ranks of the C.I.V.
His first book was In the Ranks of the C.I.V., an account of his experiences in the Boer War, but he wrote it without any thought of publication: while serving with the Honourable Artillery Company in South Africa he composed many long, descriptive letters about his experiences to his two sisters, Dulcibella and Constance. They and a family friend, Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of
Childers edited his colleague Basil Williams's more formal book, The HAC in South Africa, the official history of the regiment's part in the campaign, for publication in 1903.[78]
Childers's neighbour,
The Riddle of the Sands
In January 1901, Childers started work on his novel,
"Cavalry controversy"
Motivated by his expectation of war with Germany, Childers wrote two books on cavalry warfare, both strongly critical of what he saw as outmoded British tactics. Everyone agreed that cavalry should be trained to fight dismounted with firearms, but military traditionalists wanted cavalry still to be trained as the arme blanche, bringing shock tactics to bear by charging the enemy with lance and sabre. Training in the traditional, mounted tactics had been reestablished after the modernising reformer Field Marshal Roberts retired in 1904, when General Sir John French, who had commanded successful cavalry charges at the Battle of Elandslaagte and the relief of Kimberley, was promoted to the senior levels of the army.[90] Childers's War and the Arme Blanche (1910) carried a foreword from Roberts, and recommended that cavalry, instead of charging the enemy positions, should "make genuinely destructive assaults upon riflemen and guns" by firing from the saddle.[91][92] French, among the traditionalists, responded in defence of the old tactics in his preface (in an unlikely alliance) to Prussian general Friedrich von Bernhardi's Cavalry in War and Peace (1910).[93] This allowed Childers to counter with German Influence on British Cavalry (1911), an "intolerant" rejoinder to the criticisms of his book made by French and Bernhardi.[3][94][95]
The Framework of Home Rule
It was as a prospective Liberal Party candidate for Parliament that Childers wrote his last major book: The Framework of Home Rule (1911).[96] Childers's principal argument was an economic one: that an Irish parliament (there would be no Westminster MPs) would be responsible for making fiscal policy for the benefit of the country, and would hold "dominion" status, in the same detached way in which Canada managed its affairs.[97] His arguments were based in part on the findings of the Childers Commission of the 1890s, which was chaired by his cousin, Hugh Childers. Erskine Childers consulted Ulster Unionists in preparing Framework and wrote that their reluctance to accept the policy would easily be overcome.[98][99] Although it represented a major change from the opinions Childers had previously held, enacting Irish Home Rule was the Liberal government's policy at the time.[100]
An emerging problem was that the book assumed fiscal independence and self-government for the whole island of Ireland, including the wealthier and more industrialised counties around
Reception for the work, in both England and Ireland, was positive, although the
Conversion
There was no single incident which was responsible for Childers's conversion from supporter of the British Empire to his leading role in the Irish revolution. In his own words, delivered on 8 June 1922 while a Teachta Dála (Deputy) at the Dáil Éireann, replying to a motion of censure: "[...] by a process of moral and intellectual conviction I came away from Unionism into Nationalism and finally into Republicanism. That is a simple story."[104] There was a growing conviction, later turning to "fanatical obsession" (as his critics and friends both would suggest[105][106]) that the island of Ireland should have its own government.[107]
An early source of disillusionment with Britain's imperial policy was his view that, given more patient and skilful negotiation, the Boer War could have been avoided.[108] His friend and biographer Basil Williams noticed his growing doubts about Britain's actions in South Africa while they were on campaign together: "Both of us, who came out as hide-bound Tories, began to tend towards more liberal ideas, partly from the [...] democratic company we were keeping, but chiefly, I think, from our discussions on politics and life generally."[109] Molly Childers, brought up in a family that traced its roots to the Mayflower, also influenced her husband's outlook on the right of Britain to rule other countries.[66]
The ground was well prepared, then, when in the summer of 1908 he and his cousin Robert Barton took a holiday motor tour inspecting Horace Plunkett's agricultural co-operatives in the south and west of Ireland—areas ravaged with poverty. "I have come back", he wrote to Basil Williams, "finally and immutably a convert to Home Rule ... though we both grew up steeped in the most irreconcilable sort of Unionism."[110]
In the autumn of 1910 Childers resigned his post as Clerk of Petitions to leave himself free to join the Liberal Party, with its declared commitment to Home Rule: the Liberal Party relied on Irish Home Rule MPs for its Commons majority.[100] In a lecture delivered in Dublin in March 1912, Childers described the benefits to Ireland, and opportunities for nationalists, from the Liberal party's proposed new home rule bill (placed before the UK parliament on 11 April 1912).[111] Childers's narrative explaining the Liberal's proposals was well received, but he noted that his audience reacted "coldly" to any suggestion that, post-independence, Ireland could participate in the future of the Empire.[112]
Childers secured for himself the candidature in one of the
The Liberals'
Home Rule
In the United Kingdom General Election of November 1918 Sinn Féin secured 73 of the 105 Irish seats. The party's policy was to refuse to take up their places in the Westminster parliament and in January 1919 they set up their own assembly, the Dáil Éireann, in Dublin.[116] In March 1919 Childers presented himself at the Dublin office of Sinn Féin and offered his services. Desmond FitzGerald, responsible for Sinn Féin publicity, recognised that an English author with a wide following would be useful and he suggested that Childers should assist him. FitzGerald and Robert Barton arranged for Childers to be introduced to the Irish military leader Michael Collins, who in turn introduced him to Éamon de Valera, the President of Sinn Féin.[116] After recuperating from a severe attack of influenza at Glendalough, Childers returned to London, where he could more effectively lobby on behalf of Sinn Féin.[117] He rejoined Molly at their Chelsea flat, while also renting a house in Dublin. Molly was reluctant to remove to Dublin: she was mindful of her sons' education at English schools and she believed that she and her husband could best serve the Nationalist cause by influencing opinion in London. She eventually gave up their London home of fifteen years to settle in Dublin at the end of 1919.[118]
A month after returning to London, Childers received an invitation to meet the Sinn Féin leaders in Dublin. Anticipating an offer of a major role, Childers hurried to return but, apart from Collins, he found the leadership wary, or even hostile.
In 1920 he published Military Rule in Ireland, a pamphlet made up of eight articles from the left-wing London Daily News appearing between March and May 1920,[121] each a strong attack on British army operations in Ireland.[122] At the 1921 elections, he was elected (unopposed) to the Second Dáil as Sinn Féin member for the Kildare–Wicklow constituency,[123] and published the pamphlet Is Ireland a Danger to England? The strategic question examined, rebutting British prime minister Lloyd George's claim that an independent Ireland risked Britain's security.[124]
In February 1921 Childers became editor of the Irish Bulletin and Director of Publicity for the Dáil after the arrest of Desmond FitzGerald.[125] He stood as a Sinn Féin (anti-treaty) candidate at the 1922 general election but lost his seat.[126]
Irish War of Independence
From 1919 the Irish Republican Army (IRA), notionally under the command of Irish defence minister Cathal Brugha, regarded itself as a legitimate force answerable to the Dáil Éireann. It began a series of attacks on British institutions in Ireland.[127] The "Irish War of Independence", as the series of IRA strikes (and British reprisals, such as those by the "Black and Tans") became known,[128] lasted until July 1921, when Éamon de Valera and British prime minister David Lloyd George agreed a truce.[129] Childers had exercised more influence on the British change of heart than he knew: his reporting in the United States had strengthened sympathy for the Nationalist cause and in turn the US government applied pressure on the British administration.[130]
Treaty negotiations
On 12 July 1921 de Valera and a small group, including Childers as secretary, travelled to London for discussions with Lloyd George.[131] De Valera submitted Lloyd George's proposals to the Dáil and the outcome was an Irish delegation sent to London on 7 October 1921 for formal talks to negotiate the terms of a treaty. De Valera did not go but he insisted against strong opposition that Childers, in whom he had particular faith,[132] should remain secretary.[133][134] Protracted negotiations continued until agreement was reached on 5 December 1921.[135]
Childers was vehemently opposed to the final draft of the agreement, even when the clauses that required Irish leaders to take the Oath of Allegiance to the British monarch had been redefined to remove any real authority of the Crown in Ireland.[136][137] As secretary to the delegation (rather than a full delegate) his determined resistance to the terms offered by the British was overruled, notwithstanding his attempts "forever trying to manipulate the Irish delegates into uncompromising positions".[138] At the termination of the talks, Lloyd George noted a "sullen" Childers, disappointed that his "tenacious [and] sinister" attempts to wreck the negotiations had failed.[139] Historian Frank Pakenham was less critical: many of the English concessions that had permitted the Irish delegation eventually to sign the document had been introduced at Childers's instigation.[140]
The Anglo-Irish treaty agreement was presented to the Dáil and debated between December 1921 and January 1922.[141] Childers denounced it, declaring that by accepting compromise Ireland had of its own volition relinquished its independence. Arthur Griffith, a member of the delegation who had pragmatically conceded to England over the Oath of Allegiance, alleged that Childers was a secret agent of England now working to wreck the agreement and destabilise the new state. The Dáil voted to adopt the terms by the narrow majority of 64 to 57.[142][143]
Onset of civil war
The treaty with Britain broadened the division between Sinn Féin and the "Irregulars" a breakaway anti-treaty faction of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) led by Cathal Brugha.[144] Ireland descended into civil war on 28 June 1922, when government forces, using borrowed British artillery, bombarded the Four Courts, once Ireland's judicial centre but now used as the military headquarters of the IRA.[145]
Fugitive
During the civil war Childers was on the run with the anti-treaty forces in County Cork and County Kerry. The author Frank O'Connor was involved with Childers during the later part of the Civil War and gave a colourful picture of Childers's activities. According to O'Connor, Childers was ostracised from the anti-treaty forces and referred to as "that bloody Englishman", with untrained military officers, newly created from "country boys", ignoring Childers's considerable experience as a professional soldier.[146] The high command of the anti-treaty forces, too, distanced themselves from Childers.[147] His lowly rank was "Staff Captain, Southern Command, IRA".[148] Although the headquarters of the rebel army was at Macroom, County Cork only for a short time, while there Childers was able to produce southern editions of An Phoblacht which, as it was produced in the "war zone", he called Republican War News. His clandestine printing press was moved between safe houses by pony and trap.[148][149]
Childers's reporting of the skirmishes allowed
Early in November 1922, after his printing press had fallen down a hillside and become lost in a bog,[154] Childers decided that the cause would be better served if he were at de Valera's side as he attempted to rally the anti-treaty forces. Accordingly he set off by bicycle (in company with David Robinson, also on the run[155]) on the 200-mile (320 km) journey from Cork to his old home at Glendalough, as a staging post before meeting De Valera in Dublin. On 10 November Free State forces, possibly informed by an estate worker, burst into the house and arrested him.[156][157] Robinson had hidden himself in a cellar and was not captured.[155] Upon hearing of Childers's capture Winston Churchill expressed his satisfaction, referring to Childers as "the mischief-making, murderous renegade".[158] Years later, Churchill's opinion of Childers seems to have softened referring to him as a "man of distinction, ability and courage[...]who had shown daring and ardour against the Germans in the Cuxhaven raid on New Year's Day 1915[...]."[159]
Trial and appeal
Childers was put on trial by a military court on the charge of possessing a small Spanish-made
Childers appealed against the sentence, and this was heard the next day by Judge Charles O'Connor, who said he lacked jurisdiction because of the civil war:
The Provisional Government is now de jure as well as de facto the ruling authority bound to administer, to preserve the peace and to repress by force, if necessary, all persons who seek by violence to overthrow it ... He [Childers] disputes the authority of the [military] Tribunal and comes to this Civil Court for protection, but its answer must be that its jurisdiction is ousted by the State of War which he himself has helped to produce.[162][163]
Childers's lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court, but before it was even accepted by the court and listed as an appealable case, he was put to death.[164][165]
Execution
Childers was executed on 24 November 1922 by firing squad at the Beggars Bush Barracks in Dublin. Before his execution he shook hands with the firing squad.[3] He obtained a promise from his then 16-year-old son, the future President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers, to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed his death sentence.[166] His final words, spoken to the firing squad, were: "Take a step or two forward, lads, it will be easier that way."[167]
Childers's body was buried at Beggars Bush Barracks until 1923, when it was exhumed and reburied in the republican plot at Glasnevin Cemetery.[3]
Legacy
Winston Churchill, who had exerted pressure on Michael Collins and the Free State government to make the treaty work by crushing the rebellion, expressed the view that, "No man has done more harm or shown more genuine malice or endeavoured to bring a greater curse upon the common people of Ireland than this strange being, actuated by a deadly and malignant hatred for the land of his birth.".[168] By contrast, Éamon de Valera said of him, "He died the Prince he was. Of all the men I ever met, I would say he was the noblest.".[169]
On 23 November 2022 the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ transmitted a television programme to mark the centenary of Childers's execution. While acknowledging the importance within Ireland of his political and revolutionary achievements, and his role as "an active propagandist" for the revolution, it contended that his fame beyond Ireland now rests only on his novel The Riddle of the Sands.[170]
It was the express wish of Molly Childers, upon her death in 1964, that the extensive and meticulous collection of papers and documents from her husband's in-depth involvement with the Irish struggles of the 1920s should be locked away until 50 years after his death. In 1972, Erskine Hamilton Childers started the process of finding an official biographer for his father. In 1974, Andrew Boyle (previous biographer of Brendan Bracken and Lord Reith amongst others) was given the task of exploring the vast Childers archive, and his biography of Robert Erskine Childers was finally published in 1977.[171]
In December 2021
Notes
- ^ Burke Wilkinson of the Massachusetts Historical Society suggests that their first meeting was at a public reception for the HAC, where Molly had contrived to be seated next to Childers.[62]
References
- ^ Olausson & Sangster 2006, p. 71.
- ^ a b Hopkinson, Michael A. "Childers, (Robert) Erskine". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Archived from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Childers, (Robert) Erskine (1870–1922)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 27.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 6.
- ^ a b Ring 1996, pp. 29–31.
- ^ "Childers, Robert Erskine (CHLS889RE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 35.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 49–61.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 21.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 39.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 64.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 19 "The duties included drafting and continually re-drafting proposed legislation ... carefully selecting words and phrases to comply with the compromises reached by the politicians.".
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 45.
- ^ Piper 2003, pp. 22–27.
- ^ Piper 2003, pp. 29–31.
- ^ Fowler, Carol (December 2003). "Erskine Childers's log books". Sailing Today. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 94.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 125.
- ^ Ball 2006, p. 153.
- Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Archivedfrom the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
- ^ Buettner 2005, p. 167.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 40–43.
- ^ a b Piper 2003, pp. 39–42.
- ^ Childers 1901, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Reader 1988, p. 13.
- ^ "The War in South Africa". The Times. No. 36057. London. 5 February 1900. p. 9.
- ^ Childers 1901, p. 13.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 48.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 55.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 239.
- ^ Childers 1901, p. 289.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 123.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 175.
- ^ FitzPatrick 1997, p. 386.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 187–188.
- ^ Ring 1996, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 126.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 145.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 147.
- ^ Ring 1996, pp. 152–153.
- ^ For example, G. M. Trevelyan, an acquaintance from Trinity College Dublin, wrote to Childers a letter of congratulation on his exploit: Boyle 1977, p. 329
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 140.
- ^ In later years Childers's enemies in the new Irish Parliament cited this telegram as evidence that he had always been a British agent: Boyle 1977, pp. 196, 256, 308.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 151.
- London Gazette(28876): 6594. 21 August 1914.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 77.
- ^ a b Knightley 2003, p. 17.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 197.
- ^ "Cuxhaven Raid". The Times. London. 19 February 1915. p. 6.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 153.
- ^ "Naval Honours. Awards for Patrol and Air Services". The Times. London. 23 April 1917. p. 4.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 220–221.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 173.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 179.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 188.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 235–237.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 242–243.
- ^ "Royal Air Force". The London Gazette. No. 31458. 15 July 1919. p. 9003.
- ^ "The Londoners in Boston". The New York Times. 4 October 1903. p. 1.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 19.
- from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
- ^ McCoole 2003, p. 147.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 88.
- ^ Dempsey, Pauric J.; Boylan, Shaun. "Barton, Robert Childers". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
- ^ a b Boyle 1977, pp. 124–126.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 238.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 138.
- ^ a b Ring 1996, pp. 94–95.
- ^ McCoole 2003, p. 30.
- ^ Wilkinson 1976, p. 76.
- ^ Piper 2003, pp. 94, 101.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 70.
- ^ a b "Thompson, Henry Yates". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 61.
- London Daily News. 21 November 1900. p. 6.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 63.
- ^ Williams & Childers 1903.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 115.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 129–131.
- ^ Childers 1903.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 71.
- ^ "Smith Elder and Co's new books". The Times. No. 37105. 12 June 1903. p. 8.
- ^ Piper 2003, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Drummond 1992, Introduction.
- ^ McCrum, Robert (12 October 2003). "The 100 greatest novels of all time". Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
- ^ "The 20 best spy novels of all time". The Telegraph. 3 August 2016. Archived from the original on 12 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
- Strand Magazine. London. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ "Eric Ambler Dies; Lauded as Father of Modern Spy Thriller". The Washington Post. 25 October 1998. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2012 – via HighBeam Research.
- ^ Beckett & Simpson 1985, p. 48.
- ^ Childers 1910, p. 1.
- ^ Badsey 2008, pp. 223–224.
- ^ von Bernhardi 1910.
- ^ Childers 1911a, p. 15.
- ^ Piper 2003, p.103: "For the first time we see Erskine the fanatic, the least pleasant aspect of his character; an aspect that was to become all too dominant when his naturally obsessive nature became involved with Ireland.".
- ^ Childers 1911b.
- ^ Kendle 1989, p. 264.
- ^ Boyce & O'Day 2001, p. 152.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 165–169).
- ^ a b Clarke 1990, p. 294.
- ^ a b Ring 1996, pp. 121–123.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 193.
- doi:10.1086/424982.
- ^ Tuairisg Oifigiúil (Official Report): For Periods 16th August 1921, to 26th August 1921, and 28th February 1922 to 8th June 1922 (Report). Dublin: Stationery Office. 1922. p. 503.
- ^ This was the reluctant opinion, for example, of Childers's long-time friend and colleague Basil Williams: Piper 2003, p. 234
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 206: "By this time [sc. his arrest] Erskine's opinions were more extreme than most members of Sinn Féin [...]The fact is that Erskine Childers went to extremes with everything he did."
- Moody, Theodore William(1981). "Defence and the role of Erskine Childers". Irish Historical Studies. 21, 22: 251.
- ^ McMahon 1999, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Williams 1926, p. 18.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 109.
- ^ Childers 1912, p. 32.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 124.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 184–185.
- ^ "Vital importance of national unity. The Amending Bill postponed". The Times. No. 40590. London. 31 July 1914. p. 12.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 222.
- ^ a b Ring 1996, pp. 204, 207.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 196.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 253–254.
- ^ a b Piper 2003, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 251.
- ^ Childers, Erskine (29 March 1920). "Military Rule in Ireland. What It Means". Daily News. London. p. 6 – via British Newspaper Archive. Subsequent parts I–VII published 7, 12, 14, 19, 27 April, ?, and 20 May 1920.
- ^ Childers 1920b.
- ^ "Erskine Robert Childers". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
- ISBN 9781108874465.
- ^ Mac Donncha, Mícheál (12 November 2009). "Remembering the Past: The Irish Bulletin". An Phoblacht. Archived from the original on 4 September 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
- ^ "Robert Erskine Childers". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 18 October 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 258.
- ^ Hopkinson 2002, pp. xvii, xix.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 275–276.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 271.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 243.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 235.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 209.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 248.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 264.
- ^ "[…]swearing allegiance first to the constitution of the Irish Free State, secondly to the crown in virtue of the common citizenship between the two countries[…]" Lee 1989, p. 50
- ^ Pakenham 1921, pp. 112–114.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 213.
- ^ Ring 1996, pp. 264–265.
- ^ Pakenham 1921, pp. 189–191.
- ^ "The Treaty Debates". www.oireachtas.ie. Houses of the Oireachtas. 28 August 2023. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 218.
- ^ "Motion of Censure". Dáil Éireann. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 272.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 220.
- ^ O'Connor 1960, p. 157.
- ^ a b Boyle 1977, p. 15.
- ^ a b Ring 1996, p. 276.
- ^ Barrett, Anthony. "The Media War: Robert Erskine Childers in West Cork". Irish History Online. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ Ring 1996, pp. 278–279.
- ^ Piper 2003, pp. 222–223.
- ^ O'Connor 1960, p. 162.
- ^ Campbell 1994, p. 196.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 312.
- ^ a b c Wilkinson 1976, pp. 220–223.
- ^ Piper 2003, p. 225.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 299, 317–319.
- ^ Bromage, Mary (1964), Churchill and Ireland, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IL, pg 96, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64-20844
- ^ Churchill 1955, p. 370.
- ^ Siggins, Lorna (18 October 1995). "Pixilated Pistol puts in a timely reappearance". The Irish Times. p. 1.
- ^ Ring 1996, pp. 286–287.
- ^ Application of Childers; High Court, 22 November 1922
- ^ "The Childers Case". The Times. No. 43197. 24 November 1922. p. 14.
- ^ Ring 1996, p. 286.
- ^ Ranelagh 1999, p. 206.
- ^ Peter Stanford (8 November 1976). "On Soundings". Time. Archived from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
- ^ Boyle 1977, p. 25.
- ^ From a speech given by Winston Churchill, 11 November 1922 in Dundee."Mr Churchill at Dundee". The Times. 13 November 1922. p. 18.
- ^ Jordan 2010, p. 127.
- ^ Byrne, Donal (23 November 2022). "The execution of Robert Erskine Childers". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 2 September 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
- ^ Boyle 1977, pp. 8–10.
- ^ "First Day Cover (Centenary of the death of Erskine Childers)". An Post. Archived from the original on 2 September 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
Sources
- Badsey, Stephen (July 2008). Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880–1918. Farnham, England: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754664673.
- Ball, Robert W. D. (2006). Mauser Military Rifles of the World. Iola, WI: Krause. ISBN 9780896892965.
- Beckett, Ian; ISBN 9780719017377.
- von Bernhardi, Friedrich (1910). Cavalry in War and Peace. Translated by OCLC 360808.
- Boyce, David George; O'Day, Alan (2001). Defenders of the Union: A Survey of British and Irish Unionism Since 1801. London: Routledge. p. 152. ISBN 9780415174213.
- Boyle, Andrew (1977). The riddle of Erskine Childers. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091284909.
- Buettner, Elizabeth (2005). Empire Families. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199287659.
- Campbell, Colm (1994). Emergency law in Ireland, 1918–1925. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198256755.
- Childers, Erskine (1901). In The Ranks of the C. I. V. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- — (1903). The Riddle of the Sands : A Record of Secret Service Recently Achieved. London: OCLC 3569143.
- — (1910). War and the Arme Blanche. London: OCLC 3644148.
- — (1911a). German Influence on British cavalry. London: OCLC 11627879.
- — (1911b). The Framework of Home Rule. London: Edward Arnold. OCLC 906176236.
- — (2 March 1912), The form and purpose of Home Rule, Dublin: Edward Ponsonby, OCLC 7485421
- — (1920b). Military Rule in Ireland. Dublin: Talbot Press. OCLC 16043760.
- Clarke, Peter (1990). "Government and Politics in England: realignment and readjustment". In Haigh, Christopher (ed.). The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. [1]. ISBN 9780521395526.
- Churchill, Winston (1955). The World Crisis—The Aftermath. Vol. IV. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 9781472586957.
- ISBN 9781879373679.
- Costello, Peter (1977), The Heart Grown Brutal: The Irish Revolution in Literature from Parnell to the Death of Yeats, 1891–1939, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780847660070.
- Cox, Tom (1975). Damned Englishman: A Study Of Erskine Childers (1870–1922). Exposition Press. ISBN 9780682478212.
- Drummond, Maldwin, ed. (1992). The Riddle of the Sands. London: The Folio Society.
- FitzPatrick, David (1997). Thomas Bartlett, Keith Jeffery (ed.). A Military History of Ireland. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521629898.
- Hopkinson, Michael (2002). The Irish War of Independence. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773524989.
- Jordan, Anthony J (2010). Éamon de Valera, 1882–1975 : Irish : Catholic : visionary. Dublin: Westport Books. ISBN 9780952444794.
- Kendle, John (1989). Ireland and the federal solution. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773506763.
- ISBN 9780140106558.
- ISBN 9780521377416.
- McCoole, Sinéad (2003). No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9781847177896.
- McInerney, Michael (1971). The Riddle Of Erskine Childers: Unionist & Republican. E & T O'Brien. OCLC 7092164.
- McMahon, Deirdre (1999). "Ireland and the Empire-Commonwealth, 1900–1948". In Brown, Judith M; Louis, William (eds.). The Oxford History of the British Empire. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 147–148. ISBN 9780199246793.
- O'Connor, Frank (1960). An Only Child And My Father's Son: An Autobiography. London: ISBN 9780330304207.
- Olausson, Lena; Sangster, Catherine M. (2006). Oxford BBC guide to pronunciation: the essential handbook of the spoken word. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780192807106.
- ISBN 9787800337031.
- Piper, Leonard (2003). Dangerous waters : the life and death of Erskine Childers. Hambledon. ISBN 9781852853921. Also known as The tragedy of Erskine Childers.
- Popham, Hugh (1979). A Thirst For The Sea: Sailing Adventures of Erskine Childers. Stanford Maritime. ISBN 9780540071975.
- ISBN 9780521469449.
- Reader, William (1988). At Duty's Call: A Study in Obsolete Patriotism. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719024092.
- Reid, Walter (2006). Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig. Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh. ISBN 9781841585178.
- Ring, Jim (1996). Erskine Childers: A Biography. John Murray. ISBN 9780719556814.
- ISBN 9781845136918.
- Wilkinson, Burke (1976). The Zeal of the Convert. Washington: R. B. Luce. OCLC 473681951.
- OCLC 13508383.
- Williams, Basil (1926). Erskine Childers, 1870–1922: A Sketch. London: Women's Printing Society. OCLC 34705727.
External links
- Works by Erskine Childers in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Erskine Childers at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Erskine Childers at Internet Archive
- Works by Erskine Childers at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Erskine Childers at Open Library
- Free ebooks of The Riddle of the Sands and In the Ranks of the C.I.V., optimised for printing, plus selected Childers bibliography
- Childers's rebuttal to the Dail in 1922 that he had served in the British Secret Service.
- "Newsreel Movie Footage of Robert Erskine Childers". London: British Pathé. 1922.
- "Archival material relating to Erskine Childers". UK National Archives.
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin: