The riddle of the sands / a record of the secret service

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25/11/22 MR. ERSKINE CHILDERS EXECUTED. THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT. PROTESTANT CLERGYMAN WITH HIM AT THE END. HOW LONDON HEARD THE NEWS. MR. Erskine Childers was executed yesterday morning, but no details beyond the bare official announcement given below are available. The news caused some excitement in London, but, according to the Central News Correspondent, it aroused little feeling in the Lobby of the House of Commons. Members, he says, are satisfied that the Free State Government knows its business best, and they rather admire the Government for acting with all the severity necessary to make its will effective. The following official report was issued from Army Headquarters:— OFFICIAL. Mr. Erskine Childers was tried by a Military Court at Portobello Barrack, Dublin, on November 17th, 1922, and charged with having possession, without proper authority, of an automatic pistol when apprehended by a party of national forces on November 10th, at Annamoe House, Co. Wicklow. The accused was found guilty and sentenced to death. The finding and sentence was duly confirmed, and the execution was carried out this morning at 7 o'clock. We have received from the party which Mr. Erskine Childers served a statement which says that at 9.45 yesterday morning Mrs. Childers was officially informed that her husband had been executed at 7 o'clock. This was the first notification which she received that the execution was fixed for yesterday morning. Mr. Childers was first told to prepare for execution on Monday morning last. The statement adds that he applied to see the Rev. Dr. Browne, Maynooth, or Father Albert, and that, when this request was refused, he asked to see a Protestant clergyman whom he had known as a boy. This clergyman was brought to him, and was with him when he died. ERSKINE CHILDERS. EVENTFUL AND VARIED CAREER. A CHARACTER SKETCH. By NICHEVO. That last night at Earlsfort Terrace ten months ago never will be forgotten by those who witnessed the scenes which followed the passing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Arthur Griffith, flushed to the brows, was nearly bursting with suppressed excitement. Michael Collins was dashing his nervous hand through his shock of jet-black hair, while on the other side of the room Harry Boland was crying like a child, and Cathal Brugha was biting his lips in bitter disappointment. A few seats away from Brugha, Erskine Childers was sitting. His face was drawn and haggard. Bloodless lips were parched, and twitched in painful grief. But this strange man never moved in his place. Like Arthur Griffith, he knew how to master his emotions. And now they all are dead. Griffith died of worry, Collins and Brugha fell in the beat of the light, Boland was killed in a scuffle at Ekorries, and Childers faced the firing party yesterday at dawn. THE GREAT TRAGEDY. Of all the many men who have met their deaths in the Irish political arena, none was more remarkable type than Erskine Childers. Brilliantly clever, he might have attained success i…