Career
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, 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 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.)
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