Madam, - With reference to Conor Brady's review of Leonard Pipers biography of Erskine Childers, Douglas E. Mellon (April 7th) is correct in asserting that Childers was executed at Beggar's Bush Barracks.
In S. Bartholomew's, a History of the Dublin Parish (Kenneth Milne, 1963) there is a quotation from a letter written by the then curate of the parish at the time of the execution, C.B. Moss, as follows:
"Erskine Childers, the well-known writer and political leader. . .was shot at Beggar's Bush Barracks in our parish. That morning I was taking a class of boys in Sandford Park School, and one of them was Childers' son (Robert), who was sent for during the lesson, and we heard afterwards that it was because his father had just been executed." - Yours, etc.,
Very Rev JOHN PATERSON,
Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin 8.
Madam, - After Erskine Childers was arrested he was held under heavy guard at Beggar's Bush Barracks where, after some days, he was executed.
There is a detailed account of the circumstances of his execution in my book Richard Mulcahy - a Family Memoir (pp194-197). It is based on a tape-recorded conversation in the early 1960s between my father, Richard Mulcahy, and Frank Henderson, who had been a private soldier in the party guarding Childers. It is a poignant account of a tragic event.
Childers was executed ostensibly because he had a gun in his house but in reality because, as the leading anti-Treaty propagandist, he was a serious thorn in the side of the Provisional Government. - Yours, etc.,
RISTEARD MULCAHY,
Roebuck Road,
Dublin, 14.
Conor Brady writes: The Government communique quoted by Leonard Piper says Childers was tried at Portobello. But the author makes it clear he was executed at Beggar's Bush. The error was mine .