Robert Erskine Childers, usually known as Erskine Childers, was an English-born Irish nationalist who established himself as a writer with accounts of the Second Boer War, the novel The Riddle of the Sands about German preparations for a sea-borne invasion of England, and proposals for achieving Irish independence.
Asgard is a location associated with the gods in Norse cosmology.
Howth is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes the island of Ireland's Eye, which holds multiple natural protection designations.
Events from the year 1914 in Ireland.
Darrell Edmund Figgis was an Irish writer, Sinn Féin activist and independent parliamentarian in the Irish Free State.
The Larne gun-running was a major gun smuggling operation organised in April 1914 in Ireland by Major Frederick H. Crawford and Captain Wilfrid Spender for the Ulster Unionist Council to equip the Ulster Volunteer Force. The operation involved the smuggling of almost 25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition from the German Empire, with the shipments landing in Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor in the early hours between Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 1914. The Larne gun-running may have been the first time in history that motor-vehicles were used "on a large scale for a military-purpose, and with striking success".
The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It has been made into feature-length films for both cinema and television.
Joseph O'Doherty was an Irish teacher, barrister, revolutionary, politician, county manager, member of the First Dáil and of the Irish Free State Seanad.
Asgard II was the Irish national sail training vessel, until she sank in the Bay of Biscay in 2008. A brigantine, she was commissioned on 7 March 1981 and purpose-built as a sail training vessel by Jack Tyrrell in Arklow, County Wicklow. She was named after the Asgard, a yacht which smuggled weapons for the Irish Volunteers in 1914.
Sir Thomas Myles was a prominent Irish home ruler and surgeon, involved in the importation of arms for the Irish Volunteers in 1914.
Edward Conor Marshall O'Brien was an Irish aristocrat and intellectual. His views were republican and nationalist. He was also owner and captain of one of the first boats to sail under the tri-colour of the Irish Free State. He was the first amateur Irish sailor to sail around the world.
Mary Alden Childers, known as Molly Childers, was an American-born Irish writer and nationalist. A daughter of Dr Hamilton Osgood and Margaret Cushing Osgood of Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, her older sister was Gretchen Warren. She married fellow Irish writer and nationalist, Erskine Childers. Their son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, became the fourth President of Ireland.
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 crowd, which prompted police and military forces to intervene. A riot ensued and the attempt to seize the weapons was unsuccessful. As the King's Own Scottish Borderers returned to barracks, they were accosted by a mob at Bachelors Walk, who threw stones and exchanged insults with the soldiers. In an event later termed the Bachelor's Walk massacre, the soldiers shot into the crowd, resulting in the deaths of four civilians and the wounding of at least 38.
Brigadier-General Gordon Strachey Shephard, was a Royal Flying Corps commander. He was the highest-ranking officer of the flying services to be killed in service during the First World War.
The Riddle of the Sands is a 1979 British spy thriller cinema film based upon the novel of the same name written by Erskine Childers. Set in 1901, and starring Michael York, Simon MacCorkindale and Jenny Agutter, it concerns the efforts of two British yachtsmen to avert a plot by the German Empire to launch a seaborne military invasion of the United Kingdom.
David Lubbock Robinson was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a prominent figure in County Wicklow during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.
The Home Rule Crisis was a political and military crisis in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that followed the introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1912.
Mary Ellen Spring Rice was an Irish nationalist activist during the early 20th century. She was actively involved in gun-running during 1913-14.
The Bachelor's Walk massacre occurred in Dublin, on 26 July 1914, when a column of troops of the King's Own Scottish Borderers was accosted by a crowd on Bachelor's Walk following the Howth gun-running operation. After some verbal baiting, the troops attacked "hostile but unarmed" protesters with rifle fire and bayonets – resulting in the deaths of four civilians and injuries to in excess of 30 more. The four killed were Mary Duffy (50), Patrick Quinn (50), James Brennan (18) and Sylvester Pidgeon (40) who succumbed to his wounds on 24 September. One of those shot was Luke Kelly, the father of folk singer Luke Kelly.
Molly O'Reilly was an Irish republican and Socialist activist and soldier, taking part in the 1916 Irish Easter Rising with the Irish Citizen Army. Most notably, she unfurled the flag at Liberty Hall for the ICA during preparations for the rising.
