IN July 1973 a team of news executives from the American Broadcasting Company arrived in Dublin to interview Erskine Childers who had just taken up residence at Áras an Uachtaráin. In the world before the mobile phone and instant communication, staff in the new president’s office asked where the ABC team was staying in Dublin “should it be necessary to get in touch” before the time of the interview.
It is hard to imagine the newly appointed team of advisers working for President Michael D Higgins inquiring about the accommodation arrangements of foreign media outlets. A quick text or an e-mail would be sufficient to ensure all necessary details were known and that President Higgins would have whatever relevant information was required before sitting down in front of any television camera.
In an earlier era contacts were much more relaxed. ABC had made its first request to interview Childers only fours days following his election as Ireland’s fourth president. The informal nature of this initial correspondence is striking. The ABC letter seeking to interview the president-elect was sent to his home in Rathgar in Dublin. The letter writer, a Walter R Porges, worked on Issues and Answers, a weekend programme broadcast across the United States on both radio and television. By agreeing to the interview, Porges informed Childers, he would join a list of “numerous prime ministers, presidents and other world leaders whose opinions on current affairs are greatly valued”.
The broadcaster company was seeking an exclusive. It wanted to be the first American news outlet to interview Childers. The initial proposal was to pre-record an interview and broadcast it to coincide with the presidential inauguration on June 24th, 1973. In his reply, Childers noted his “pleasure” in accepting the invitation to appear on the ABC programme. He even agreed to the interview taking place at his Highfield Road home in Rathgar.
But Childers was in transition from political life to presidential office. Life for the veteran Fianna Fáil politician was about to change dramatically. It did not take long for the official system to assert itself. Walter Porges quickly found himself in contact with the Secretary to the President and other civil servants. “Perhaps you will be good enough to furnish an outline of the questions which it is proposed to address to Mr Childers,” the press attaché at the Áras wrote.
The ABC team duly submitted a series of questions to which Childers prepared handwritten answers for his own staff. Those answers are preserved in National Archives files. The Americans were intrigued that a country with such a large Catholic majority had just elected a president who was a Protestant. “Can you explain this apparent contradiction?” they asked.
Childers noted that he had enjoyed many years as a Dáil deputy and government minister. “Never has any religious faith hindered my career,” the president-elect responded.
Many Fianna Fáil colleagues saw Childers as somewhat eccentric. He was also standoffish and avoided baby-kissing electoral campaigning. But having learnt his trade under Éamon de Valera – who gave him his first ministerial promotion – and also served in cabinet under Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch, Childers was savvy enough to know how to avoid trouble. He was not going to allow the ABC team draw him into political controversy in the early days of his presidency.
To three of the nine questions he bluntly wrote, “no comment”. To a further two questions he recorded, “will not permit question to be asked”. The subjects of contention concerned Northern Ireland. The contemporary conflict was only a handful of years old. The violence on the streets in Belfast, Derry and other locations was international news. The ABC team wanted to know what Childers thought of recent election results in the North and whether he feared the conflict might spread south of the border. They also wanted Childers to attempt a little futurology: “If you had to guess, what could you foresee as the political makeup of Ireland in 10 years? In 50 years?” The interview was ultimately delayed until early July 1973 – and as such the rescheduled date was after the presidential inauguration. Two ABC presenters and other production staff arrived in Dublin to interview Childers for the 30-minute programme. Despite Childers’s declared reluctance, the best news lines – ABC said – concerned Northern Ireland.
On camera the new president admitted that, the violence in the North had “postponed the day of reunification”. He even compared the situation to the American civil war, which must have pleased the ABC team in terms of making a connection with their domestic audience.
They would have been doubly satisfied as Childers’s remarks were reported extensively in the US newspapers. Following the interview a “thank you” letter arrived at the Áras from the ABC news executives although – much to the presidential staff’s frustration – without the promised tape recording of the programme.