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| Talk by by Tim Magennis - 30th March 2011 |
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Report & Photos by Pat Murphy
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Part of the large attendance
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On Wednesday 30th March an audience of 100 in Howth Yacht Club were spell bound with a talk and slide show by Tim Magennis during which he covered in great detail Erskine's unique life from his involvement in the Boer War as a "driver" caring for a pair of horses and riding them to the gun train to his death in 1922.
Robert Erskine Childers was born on 25th June 1870 in Mayfair, London, the second son to Robert Caesar Childers, a translator and oriental scholar from an ecclesiastical family, and Anna Mary Henrietta, née Barton, from an Anglo-Irish landowning family of Glendalough House, Annomoe, County Wicklow.
On 24th November 1922 aged 52 he was executed by the Irish Free State Army for possession of a revolver during the Civil War.
In 1903 while touring New England his motor cycle broke down resulting in a chance meeting with Mary Alden ("Molly") youngest daughter of Dr. Osgood. They married on 5th January 1904. Their first son Erskine born in 1905 became Irelands fourth President. The yacht "Asgard" was a wedding present to Erskine and Molly.
Without doubt the two events for which he is most remembered in his exciting career was firstly his book "The Riddle of the Sands" published in 1903 and, with the help of Molly his gun running into Howth in 1914. Tim also covered Conor O'Brien's involvement with his yacht "Kelpie" in the gun running and of "Kelpie's" guns being transferred to the "Chotah" before being landed at Kilcoole, County Wicklow.
Commodore Roger Cagney presented club burgees to Tim and his assistant Sean Cullen in appreciation for an entertaining evening.
Finally many thanks to all who donated  505 for St.Francis Hospice in Raheny.
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Commodore Roger Cagney and Beat Loeliger
the Swiss Ambassador
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The Commodore presenting a club burgee to
Tim Magennis in appreciation for his excellent talk on Erskine Childers and the Asgard
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The Commodore presenting a club burgee to Sean Cullen who assisted Tim Magennis
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Tim Magennis presenting his superb talk on Erskine Childers and the Asgard
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Maura and Geraldine McLoughlin being interview by Marcus Connaughton for Seascapes
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