Sir, – I have read with interest Brian Maye’s piece on President Erskine Childers (An Irishman’s Diary, November 6th).
In my late teens, while working on the front desk in the tourist information office in my hometown of Tralee, I had the privilege of meeting him.
President Childers had spent his holiday in Castlegregory and Ivernia, and the Cork-Kerry tourism organisation had sent him books on the history and topography of the county.
One afternoon, to my considerable surprise and slight embarrassment, President Childers walked into the office alone to return the books and express his thanks.
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There were no prior warnings, no stern telephone calls to warn the staff to be on best behaviour, no officious minders hovering in the background, and the bodyguards were nowhere to be seen.
President Childers was engaging, gracious, polite and totally devoid of the pomposity that can afflict even the most well-meaning of public personages.
He was a thorough gentleman, and it came as no surprise when, following his death in November 1974, thousands of our fellow citizens stood in line to file past his coffin lying in state in Dublin Castle and pay due homage to the commitment and dignity he brought to the highest office in the country. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN,
Paris.