Irish Gun Runners Erskine Childers and Molly Alden Osgood Wed at Trinity Church in Boston on January 5, 1904

Trinity Church, Boston, 1890, courtesy of Boston Public Library

English-born Irish rebel Robert Erskine Childers married Mary (Molly) Alden Osgood at Trinity Church in Boston on Tuesday, 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.

The Boston Globe called the wedding "One of the most interesting events of the social season in Boston....In the distinguished gathering which filled the auditorium of the church was quite a delegation of Londoners, all friends of Mr. Childers, who is clerk of the house of commons and a personal friend of Lord Denbigh."

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.

Molly Osgood and Erskine Childers aboard the Asgard, their wedding gift

Their wedding gift was a brand new yacht. According to the National Museum of Ireland, "Dr. Osgood offered to pay for the construction of a yacht as a wedding present. Building work began in April 1905 and the vessel was launched that August at the port of Larvik in Norway."

Mary Spring Rice and Molly Osgood Childers aboard the Asgard in 1914

Named the Asgard, reference from Norse mythology, it was later used to help smuggle weapons into Ireland in 1914, in the Howth gun running operation.

According to Irish Rebel Music, "The Asgard was loaded with 900 Mauser Model 1871 rifles, dating from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. The Mausers were still functioning and would later be used on the attack on the GPO in the 1916 Easter Rising."

A close ally of Eamon deValera, Childrens was secretary-general of the Irish delegation involved in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921. He rejected the final treaty and was involved in the subsequent Irish Civil War. He was captured and executed on November 24, 1922, despite strong protests and appeals from around the world.

Irish leaders in Boston held a memorial for Childers at Faneuil Hall following his death.

Their son, Erskine Childers, became the fourth President of Ireland in 1973.

Find out more about Boston's Irish history at IrishHeritageTrail.com.

Research + Text. Michael Quinlin

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