Rita Childers
| Rita Childers | |
|---|---|
| First Lady of Ireland | |
|
In office 25 June 1973 – 1 December 1974 |
|
| President | Erskine H. Childers |
| Preceded by | Sinéad de Valera |
| Succeeded by | Máirín Bean Uí Dhálaigh |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Margaret Anne Dudley 19 July 1915 Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 9 May 2010 (aged 94) Glenageary, Dublin, Ireland |
| Resting place | Roundwood, Wicklow, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Erskine Hamilton Childers (m. 1952; d. 1974) |
| Children | Nessa |
| Alma mater | City, University of London |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Margaret "Rita" Childers (née Dudley; 19 July 1915 – 9 May 2010) was First Lady of Ireland from 1973 to 1974, as the wife of former Cabinet Minister and 4th President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers. She formerly worked as a press attaché in the British Embassy in Dublin.
Born as Margaret Dudley, her father was James John Dudley.
Childers met her husband, a widower who was also a senior member of the Fianna Fáil, while working as an attaché for the British Embassy in Dublin. The couple's mixed marriage (Erskine Hamilton Childers was an Anglican, she a Roman Catholic) caused some controversy; the then Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid tried to discourage them from marrying. They eventually opted to marry in Paris. (McQuaid reportedly later apologised to the couple for his behaviour.)
Erskine was elected President of Ireland in June 1973, but died suddenly in November 1974. The political parties secretly agreed a deal to make Mrs Childers the new president. However, a political dispute in which a partially deaf Fine Gael minister in the National Coalition government, Tom O'Donnell, misheard a journalist's question about Mrs Childers and confirmed that she would be the next president led the plan to collapse. Her late husband's political party, Fianna Fáil, withdrew its support for her and instead proposed former Chief Justice Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh. Ó Dálaigh was eventually elected unopposed as the joint nominee of the government and main opposition parties in the presidential election of 1974.
...
Wikipedia