Irish Boston History & Heritage

English-born Irish rebel Robert Erskine Childers married Mary (Molly) Alden Osgood at Trinity Church in Boston on January 5, 1904.  They met at a state dinner hosted by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company at Faneuil Hall and were married after a three-week courtship.  Both were idealists from upper class families whose passions turned toward Ireland .  Childers was a gifted writer whose book, Riddle of the Sands , published in 1903, is considered the first spy-novel thriller.  In 1911 Childers published his book, TheFramework of Home Rule , in which he decried British abuse of freedoms in Ireland and other colonies around the world. In July 1914 Childers and Osgood carried out a daring gun running operation, shipping arms and ammunition from Germany to Howth aboard the yacht Asgard , which Mary’s family had given the couple on their wedding day.   A close ally of Eamon deValera , Childrens was secretary-general of the Irish delegation involved in n