Childers, Erskine H

▪ president of Ireland

born Dec. 11, 1905, London

died Nov. 17, 1974, Dublin

      Irish statesman and fourth president of the Irish Republic (1973–74). He was the second Protestant to hold the office (the first being Douglas Hyde, 1938–45).

      Childers was given the same Christian name as his father, Robert Erskine, who became a leading figure in the struggle for Irish independence, was minister for publicity in the Republican government of 1919, and was executed on Nov. 24, 1922. The son was educated in England and read history at Trinity College, Cambridge. He returned to Ireland in 1932 and became advertising manager of the Irish Press, the newly founded newspaper owned by the De Valera family. Following his political debut in 1938, he became a junior minister in 1944 and was later minister for posts and telegraphs (1951–54), of lands, forestry, and fisheries (1957–59), and of transport and power (1959–69). Childers was minister for health and deputy leader of the Fianna Fáil party from 1969.

      He supported Prime Minister Jack Lynch's condemnation of the violence in Northern Ireland and Lynch's advocacy of a European role for the Irish Republic within the European Economic Community. After his election as president in 1973, Childers was not able to realize his hope of making the presidency a platform for noncontroversial pronouncements and intellectual debate.

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