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Sat 03 Mar 2003A controversial, contradictory hero
Biography: Among the varied and extraordinary cast that participated in the drama that was the Irish independence movement of the early 20th Century, Robert Erskine Childers is arguably the most enigmatic, writes Conor Brady.
His life story of tragedy, love, achievement, pain, passion and idealism - and his ultimate execution - is the stuff of which novels are made. Yet he defies conventional definition, remaining a figure of contradictions whose role in modern Irish history can still generate argument.
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