Molly Childers
Encyclopedia
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(14 December 1875–1 January 1964) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
writer and Irish nationalist. She was the daughter of Dr. Hamilton Osgood and Margaret Cushing Osgood
Margaret Cushing Osgood
Margaret Cushing Pearmain Osgood , was an american writer and poet. She was the mother of Mary Alden Childers, Gretchen Osgood Warren and the grandmother of Erskine Hamilton Childers the fourth President of Ireland.-The City Without Walls:...
of Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, that along with the neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks...
. Her older sister was Gretchen Osgood Warren
Gretchen Osgood Warren
Gretchen Osgood Warren ; the wife of Fiske Warren was an actress, singer and poet. The daughter of Dr. Hamilton Osgood and Margaret Cushing Osgood of Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, her younger sister was Mary Alden Childers wife of writer and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers.-Early...
and she was married to the writer and Irish nationalist, Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
. Her son Erskine Hamilton Childers
Erskine Hamilton Childers
Erskine Hamilton Childers served as the fourth President of Ireland from 1973 until his death in 1974. He was a Teachta Dála from 1938 until 1973...
, would be elected the fourth President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
.
Early life and family
Childers, affectionately called "Molly", was born into a reputable Bostonian family that lived at 8 Beacon StreetBeacon Street
Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several of its western suburbs. Beacon Street in Boston, Brookline, Brighton, and Newton is not to be confused with the Beacon Street in nearby Somerville, or others elsewhere.-Description:...
in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, that along with the neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks...
. Physically disabled
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
from the age of three following a skating accident, Childers was educated at home and wasn't mobile for the first 12 years of her life. Eventually she was able to move enough to ride horses, but she wasn't ever capable of walking. Her father, Dr. Osgood was a student of Dr. Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
and spent time with him in France. It was this research with Pasteur that enabled him to bring the first rabies antitoxin back to Boston, and in turn America . The Osgood's ancestry was directly linked to John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
and Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
, and Molly was very proud and outspoken about this connection . Her mother Margaret Cushing Osgood
Margaret Cushing Osgood
Margaret Cushing Pearmain Osgood , was an american writer and poet. She was the mother of Mary Alden Childers, Gretchen Osgood Warren and the grandmother of Erskine Hamilton Childers the fourth President of Ireland.-The City Without Walls:...
encouraged her to read, and to pursue a life in academia as her disability would hinder other careers. Coincidentally, the Osgood family home on Beacon Street was literally next door to the famous Boston Athenæum
Boston Athenæum
Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of only sixteen extant membership libraries, meaning that patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use the Athenæum's services...
. Molly spent years of her childhood inside this library, reading for hours every day, and several members of the Osgood family are listed amongst the first proprietors of the institution,,.
Marriage
In late 1903, Molly by pure chance, happened to be seated next to Erskine ChildersRobert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
at a dinner given by her aunt in Beacon Hill. Erskine
Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
was in Boston on a ceremonial trip with Lord Denbigh
Rudolph Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh
Rudolph Robert Basil Aloysius Augustine Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh, 8th Earl of Desmond GCVO TD DL JP , styled Viscount Feilding from 1865 to 1892, was the eldest son of the 8th Earl of Denbigh and Mary Berkeley, the daughter of Robert Berkeley and Henrietta Benfield.Feilding was an artillery...
and the Honourable Artillery Company
Honourable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII. Today it is a Registered Charity whose purpose is to attend to the “better defence of the realm"...
. By January of 1904, after several weeks of courtship, the two were married at Trinity Church in Boston. One Boston newspaper described their wedding as the most "distinguished gathering" of the season
Charities
During World War One, she was involved in politically difficult work with the Committee for Relief in BelgiumCommittee for Relief in Belgium
The Commission for Relief in Belgium or C.R.B. − known also as just Belgian Relief − was an international organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War.Its leading figure was chairman Herbert Hoover .- Origins :When the...
. Due to the ever changing diplomatic situation with Germany during 1915-1918, the Belgian wartime refugees, displaced by the conflict were put into a cross channel tug of war over supply of desperately needed aid. Molly was involved in the fundraising and awareness of their plight, alongside her sister and mother who combined their efforts. In 1918, King George V, conferred an MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
on her for this work. Childers was also awarded the Médaille de la Reine Elisabeth
Order of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium
The Order of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium was a campaign medal created by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium for humanitarian service in World War I.It was created on 15 September, 1915 and finalized by Royal Decree of 14 May, 1919...
from Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. Along with her husband Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
, they were both members of the Irish White Cross Society, the precursor to the Irish Red Cross
Irish Red Cross
The Irish Red Cross Society , commonly referred to as the Irish Red Cross , is the National Red Cross Society in the Republic of Ireland. It was established by Nurse Elizabeth O'Herrin either on 1 July or 1 August 1939 on the approach of the Second World War...
. She was a trustee, and he was a member of the Executive Committee. Famed Irish actress Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
was also a member of this society. From 1916 to 1918 she was Honorary Secretary of The Chelsea War Refugees Fund,. After the great war in 1920, she was involved in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
, one of the world's oldest peace organizations, later to be merged into the UNESCO of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Ireland and Republicanism
She was involved in the July 1914 Irish VolunteersIrish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
gunrunning on the family yacht, Asgard
Asgard (yacht)
The Asgard is a yacht, formerly owned by the English-born Irish nationalist, and writer Robert Erskine Childers and his wife Molly Childers. It was bought for £1,000 in 1904 from one of Norway's most famous boat designers, Colin Archer...
, into Howth
Howth
Howth is an area in Fingal County near Dublin city in Ireland. Originally just a small fishing village, Howth with its surrounding rural district is now a busy suburb of Dublin, with a mix of dense residential development and wild hillside, all on the peninsula of Howth Head. The only...
. A posed photograph taken at the time with Mary Spring-Rice shows her beside some of the rifles and ammunition boxes.
Allegation of spying
In 2006, historian Michael T. Foy published a book "Michael Collins's Intelligence War: The Struggle Between The British and the IRA 1919-1921" in which he suggested that Molly Childers may have been a spy for the British during the Irish War of IndependenceIrish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
. Foy speculates that she volunteered for British intelligence before the couple moved to Ireland in 1918. The claim was described by reviewers in Irish newspapers as "dramatic", "sensational" and 'a bottle of smoke'.
The author discovered in British archives a series of intelligence reports which indicated that a woman with high-level access to Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
had been passing intelligence to the British forces. However, the name of the agent had been obscured by blue pencil in the British files stored in the UK National Archives at Kew. The author noted circumstantial evidence which, in his opinion, suggested that Molly Childers may have been the spy, including the assertion that Childers had not shared her husband's enthusiasm for Irish independence, and the spy's use of American phraseology. He proposed that Molly Childers had "the qualities to carry off such a dangerous role" and that she "consistently displayed intelligence, courage, decisiveness and single-minded determination", but acknowledged that there was no conclusive evidence. However, Foy went beyond scholarly speculation when he claimed that Childers was the only person who could fit the profile of the spy.
Nessa Childers
Nessa Childers
Nessa Maria Vereker Childers is an Irish Labour Party politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament for the East constituency....
, the daughter of Molly's son President Erskine Hamilton Childers, dismissed the evidence as "circumstantial", saying in a television interview that "it just doesn't fit with her character". She questioned the evidence that the spy was female, and noted that "Up until the day she died she had photographs of Liam Mellows, Liam Brady and Rory O'Connor on her bedside and she revered them. It doesn't follow that such a person could have put those people's lives at risk."
Historian Peter Hart, who has consistently challenged republican historiography, acknowledged that Foy's theory "does seem to fit the facts as presented", but noted that "all the other facts we know about thoroughly republican Molly suggest that it simply cannot have been true, and there are other good reasons to be cautious". Hart noted that the inaccuracy of some of the intelligence suggested a source trying to tell British "hardliners just what they wanted to hear".