Images Dated 7th January 2016

On 26 July 1914 - in the midst of the European pre-war July Crisis - Childers sailed

On 26 July 1914 - in the midst of the European pre-war July Crisis - Childers sailed into Howth in his own yacht, the Asgard, bearing 900 rifles and 14, 000 rounds of ammunition, supplied from Germany by a representative of the Irish Volunteers. The ammunition box is clearly marked Hamburg
Erskine Childers at the wheel, with Gordon Shepherd (?)
Asgard was Childers's last, and most famous, yacht: in June 1914 he used it to smuggle a cargo of 900 elderly but serviceable Mauser Model 1871 rifles and 29, 000 black powder cartridges to the Irish Volunteers movement at the fishing village of Howth, County Dublin (later known as the "Howth gun-running"). It was acquired by the Irish government as a sail training vessel in 1961, stored on dry land in the yard of Kilmainham Gaol in 1979, and finally became a static exhibit at The National Museum of Ireland in 2012.
Topfoto stills library picture library stock archive vintage Ireland Irish Rebellion 1916

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President Eamon de Valera , 83 year old Head of State and sole surviving commandant

President Eamon de Valera, 83 year old Head of State and sole surviving commandant of the seven day Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916 which shook the British Empire and roused the Irish nation, takes the salute outside the historic General Post Office Building - birthplace of the Republic . At today's ceremonies in Dublin to mark the 50th Anniversary of the uprising . Church bells realed out across the flag bedecked city as emotion charged Irishmen began a two week Jubilee to commemorate the uprising .
10 April 1966
Topfoto stills library picture library stock archive vintage Ireland Irish Rebellion 1916

© TopFoto.co.uk