Robert Erskine Childers - Civil War and Death

Civil War and Death

Childers was secretary-general of the Irish delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the British government. He stayed at the delegation headquarters in Hans Place throughout the period of the negotiations, 11 October – 6 December 1921. Childers became vehemently opposed to the final draft of the agreement, particularly the clauses that required Irish leaders to take an Oath of Allegiance to the British king. The Treaty was approved by a Dáil vote of 64–57 in January 1922. In the course of the debates some felt that Childers had been insulted by Arthur Griffith, and the matter was in turn debated in June. The treaty continued to divide Sinn Féin and the IRA, and Ireland descended into civil war on 28 June 1922.

Said to be the inspiration behind the propaganda of the republican movement, Childers was hunted by National Army soldiers and had to travel secretly. The death in an ambush of Michael Collins intensified the desire of Free State authorities to exact retribution, and on 28 September 1922 the Irish Dáil introduced the Army Emergency Powers Resolution, establishing martial law powers and new capital offences for the carrying of firearms without licence. 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. Seemingly he was ostracised from the anti-treaty forces and referred to as "That bloody Englishman" due to his foreign birth. As the hunt for Childers became more urgent after the death of Collins the high command of the anti-treaty forces distanced themselves from Childers on the grounds that he was too infamous to be of any practical use, despite his considerable military experience, and at one stage he was put to work addressing letters in the staff office in Macroom, Cork.

On 10 November, Childers was arrested by Free State forces at his home in Glendalough, County Wicklow, while travelling to meet De Valera. He was tried by a military court on the charge of possessing a Spanish-made "Destroyer" .32 calibre semi-automatic pistol on his person in violation of the Emergency Powers Resolution. The pistol had been a gift from Michael Collins while the two men had been on the same side, indeed, were friends, before Collins became head of the pro-treaty Provisional Government. Childers was convicted by the military court and sentenced to death on 20 November. While his appeal against the sentence was still pending, Childers was executed on 24 November by firing squad at the Beggar's Bush Barracks in Dublin. He was buried at the barracks until 1923 when his body was reinterred in the republican plot of Glasnevin Cemetery.

Before his execution, in a spirit of reconciliation, Childers shook hands with each of the firing squad. He also obtained a promise from his then 16-year-old son, the future President Erskine Hamilton Childers, to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed his father's death warrant. His last words, spoken to them, were (characteristically) in the nature of a joke: "Take a step or two forward, lads. It will be easier that way."

Winston Churchill, who had actively pressured Michael Collins and the Free State government to make the treaty work by crushing the rebellion, expressed the widely held view of Childers at the time: "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." Some Irish (principally those against the treaty) claimed Childers's execution was politically motivated revenge, an expedient method of halting the continuing flow of anti-British political texts for which Childers was widely credited.

Eamon deValera said of him, "He died the Prince he was. Of all the men I ever met, I would say he was the noblest".

It was the express wish of Mary Childers, upon her death in 1964, that any writings based upon the extensive and meticulous collection of papers and documents from her husband's in depth involvement with the Irish struggles of the 1920s, be locked away from anyone's eyes until 50 years after his death. Thus, in 1972 Erskine Hamilton Childers started the process of finding an official biographer. In 1974, Andrew Boyle (previous biographer of Brendan Bracken, Lord Reith amongst others) was given the task of exploring the vast Childers archive, and his "official" biography of Robert Erskine Childers was finally published in 1977.