Irish diplomat who made the UN his life's work

ERSKINE Childers III, who has died, was an accomplished scion of one of Ireland's most distinguished families, yet he never pursued a career in this country.

He was for many years the highest ranking Irishman involved in international diplomacy, although never as a representative of his native State. And although the United Nations was his life's work and his great passion, he did not flinch from criticising that organisation, especially for its role during the Gulf War in 1990.

Childers was an enthusiastic and well placed supporter of moves to install the President Mrs Robinson, as the next secretary general of the UN. Almost two years ago he suggested that the new appointment should be a woman from a smaller nation, adding that Mrs Robinson would be a "suitable" candidate.

His untimely death will undoubtedly come as a blow to this campaign.

He bore the same name as his father, who was President from 1973 to 1974, and his grandfather, the author of The Riddle of the Sands and gun runner for the Volunteers, who served as a British navy flying officer in the first World War before being executed by the Free State forces during the Civil War in 1922.

Erskine Childers III quickly moved to an international stage. After qualifying in modern languages at Trinity College, he went on to study politics and international relations at Stanford University in California. By the age of 21, he was travelling the world as vice president of the United States National Students' Association.

A 22 year career in the UN followed, including nine years in Asia and other work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Following his retirement from the UN in 1989, he worked as a consultant for it and other bodies.

He was co author of a study of the leadership of the organisation he frequently referred to as "our" UN, as well as writing several studies of Middle East affairs, including The Road to Suez.

Childers's internationalism easily embraced both North and South, and it was the growing rift between the two which concerned him most in his later years. He accused the industrialised nations of blocking the UN from addressing the growing discrepancies in wealth in a world where the richest one fifth earns 60 times more than the poorest.

Smaller, independent minded states such as Ireland should stand up against the "myopic elite" of the larger countries, he urged. Irish neutrality was "absolutely essential" for the special relationship the Republic had established with many Third World countries. "To be frank, inevitably some of it has been diminished by membership in the [European] Community," he suggested.

The United States, by "a combination of buying and bullying", had intimidated the other countries in the UN into military intervention in the Gulf War. Yet the military cost alone of the war exceeded 12 years of the UN's global budget.

"The UN's most priceless strength, the confidence of its membership as a whole in its integrity and even handedness, has been profoundly weakened. Acting together, the great majority can, and must, repair this," Mr Childers wrote in a letter to The Irish Times in 1991.

"Never again should our United Nations and our Charter - which are not the property of the major powers - be left so vulnerable to such apocalyptic abuse."