The Framework of Home Rule. London: Arnold, 1911. First Edition. Pp xvi, 354, [24]. Smooth green buckram, title in gilt to spine, a nice bright copy.

“My purpose in this volume is to advocate a definite scheme of self-government for Ireland. That task necessarily involves an historical as well as a constructive argument. It would be truer perhaps to say that the greater part of the constructive case for Home Rule must necessarily be historical” (Introduction).

Erskine Childers (1870-1922), although a member of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, eventually became an ardent Irish nationalist. He served in the Boer and First World Wars, and was awarded a DSC. In 1914 he smuggled armaments into Howth. In a rather shameful action during the Irish Civil War he was executed by the Irish Free State in 1922. His crime was possession of a pistol given to him by Michael Collins.