Molly Childers
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Mary Alden Childers (' Osgood; 14 December 1875 – 1 January 1964), known as Molly Childers, was an American-born Irish writer and
nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
. A daughter of Dr Hamilton Osgood and Margaret Cushing Osgood of
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is also the location of the Massachusetts State House. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the legislature i ...
, her older sister was Gretchen Warren. She married fellow Irish writer and nationalist, Erskine Childers. Their son,
Erskine Hamilton Childers Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December 1905 – 17 November 1974) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the president of Ireland from June 1973 to November 1974. He is the only Irish president to have died in office. He also served ...
, became the fourth
President of Ireland The president of Ireland () is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The presidency is a predominantly figurehead, ceremonial institution, serving as ...
.


Early life and family

Childers, affectionately called "Molly", was born into a reputable Bostonian family that lived at 8
Beacon Street Beacon Street is a major east–west street in Boston, Massachusetts, and its western suburbs of Brookline, Massachusetts, Brookline and Newton, Massachusetts, Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, includ ...
,
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is also the location of the Massachusetts State House. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the legislature i ...
.
Physically disabled A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...
from the age of three following a skating accident, Childers was educated at home and was not mobile for the first 12 years of her life. Eventually she was able to move enough to ride horses, but she was never capable of walking without crutches. Her father, Dr Osgood, was a student of Dr
Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...
and spent time with him in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. It was this research with Pasteur that enabled him to bring the first rabies antitoxin back to Boston, and in turn the United States. The Osgood's ancestry was directly linked to
John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...
and
Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (; July 1591 – August 1643) was an English-born religious figure who was an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious formal d ...
, and Childers was very proud and outspoken about this connection. Her mother Margaret Cushing Osgood encouraged her to read and to pursue a life in academia, as her disability would hinder other careers. The Osgood family home on
Beacon Street Beacon Street is a major east–west street in Boston, Massachusetts, and its western suburbs of Brookline, Massachusetts, Brookline and Newton, Massachusetts, Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, includ ...
was next door to the
Boston Athenæum The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in ...
. Childers spent years of her childhood inside this library, reading for hours every day; several members of the Osgood family were among the first proprietors of the institution.


Marriage

In late 1903, Childers was seated next to Erskine Childers at a dinner given by her aunt on Beacon Hill.
Erskine Erskine may refer to: Places * Erskine, Renfrewshire Erskine (, , ) is a town in the council areas of Scotland, council area of Renfrewshire, and Renfrewshire (historic), historic county of counties of Scotland, the same name, situated in th ...
was in Boston on a ceremonial trip with Lord Denbigh and the
Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...
. By January 1904, after some 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 I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Childers was involved in politically difficult work with the
Committee for Relief in Belgium The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB, or simply Belgian Relief) was an international, predominantly American, organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War. It ...
. Bromley House website, ''An Espionage Classic and a Fascinating Life'', article dated July 3, 2021
/ref> Due to the changing diplomatic situation with Germany during 1915–1918, the Belgian wartime refugees displaced by the conflict were at the centre of a cross-channel tug-of-war over the supply of desperately needed aid. She raised funds for them alongside her sister and mother. In January 1918,
King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...
conferred an MBE on her for this work. She was also awarded the Médaille de la Reine Elisabeth from Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. She and her husband were members of the
Irish White Cross The Irish White Cross was established on 1 February 1921 as a mechanism for distributing funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. It was managed by the Quaker businessman, and later Irish Free State senator, James G. Dougla ...
Society, Galway Review website, ''The Love Life of Erskine Childers'', article by Peter Garland
/ref> which existed before the
Irish Red Cross The Irish Red Cross Society (IRCS; also Irish Red Cross or IRC; ) is the National Red Cross Society for the Republic of Ireland. (Northern Ireland comes under the aegis of the British Red Cross.) The society was formally established on 6 July ...
, she as a trustee, and he as a member of its executive committee. Activist
Maud Gonne Maud Gonne MacBride (, born Edith Maud Gonne); 21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953) was an Irish republican revolutionary, suffragette and actress. She was of Anglo-Irish descent and was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of people evict ...
was also a member of this organisation. From 1916 to 1918, Childers was honorary secretary of the Chelsea War Refugees Fund. After the Great War, in 1920, she joined the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
(WILPF), one of the world's oldest peace organisations, later to be merged into the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
.


Ireland and Republicanism

She was central to the July 1914
Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...
Howth gun-running The Howth gun-running ( ) was the smuggling of 1,500 Mauser rifles to Howth harbour for the Irish Volunteers, an Irish nationalist paramilitary force, on 26 July 1914. The unloading of guns from a private yacht during daylight hours attracted a ...
on her and her husband's yacht ''
Asgard In Nordic mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: ''Ásgarðr''; "Garden of the Æsir") is a location associated with the gods. It appears in several Old Norse sagas and mythological texts, including the Eddas, however it has also been suggested to be refe ...
''. A photograph taken at the time with fellow-sailor Mary Spring Rice shows her beside 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 Childers might have been a spy for the British during the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...
. Foy speculated that she had 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 had discovered in
The National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...
a series of intelligence reports to indicate that a woman with high-level access to
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
had been passing intelligence to British forces. However, the name of the agent had been obscured by blue pencil. The author noted circumstantial evidence which, in his opinion, suggested that Childers might have been the spy, including the assertion that she had not shared her husband's enthusiasm for Irish independence and the person's use of American phraseology. He proposed that 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 she was the only person who could fit the profile of the spy.
Nessa Childers Nessa Maria Vereker Childers (born 9 October 1956) is an Irish former independent politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2019. Early life She is the daughter of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine ...
, the daughter of Childers' 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: "Up until the day she died she had photographs of
Liam Mellows William Joseph Mellows (, 25 May 1892 – 8 December 1922) was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician. Born in England to an English father and Irish mother, he grew up in Ashton-under-Lyne before moving to Ireland, ...
, 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 said 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".


See also

*
List of peace activists This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated Diplomacy, diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usua ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Childers, Mary Alden 1875 births 1964 deaths Writers from Boston Irish-American history People of the Irish Civil War Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery Irish nationalists Irish republicans
Mary Alden Mary Maguire Alden (June 18, 1883 – July 2, 1946) was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. Life Alden was born in New York City on June 1 ...
Irish writers American women in World War I Women in war in Ireland Women in war 1945–1999 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people People from Beacon Hill, Boston Alumni of the University of Nottingham Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire