An Cosantóir

With the success of the UVF and the Irish Volunteers gun running, British forces increased patrols on the seas. Two years later, on the eve of the 1916 Rising, the German government sent 20,000 rifles to Tralee Bay on the Aud, which was disguised as a Norwegian steamer, but it was intercepted by the British Navy and escorted to Queenstown, County Cork. At the mouth of the harbour, the German crew sank the ship, sending its cargo to the murky depths below. Despite this setback, the Rising took place on April 24th 1916 and many of the rifles that were landed by the Asgard were used throughout Easter week. Some of those that had risked their lives on the high seas aboard the Asgard were later to die tragically. Gordon Shephard, who became a brigadier general and commander of the Royal Flying Corps, was killed during the First World War. Erskine Childers was seen by the British government as a traitor and yet was never accepted by the Republicans because of his Anglo-Irish origins. He was arrested during the Irish Civil War and found in possession of an automatic pistol that had been a gift from his friend, Michael Collins. The new Free State Government had passed a law stating that anyone found in possession of arms or ammunition was to be executed and consequently Childers was shot by firing squad in Beggar's Bush Barracks. Of the others, Mary Spring Rice died in Wales in 1924 after a long illness, Molly Childers lived until 1964, and the two deckhands, McGinley and Duggan, lived for many years after the event, with McGinley settling in the United States. After successfully defying the British Navy and landing her cargo at Howth Harbour, the Asgard set sail for Bangor in North Wales, where she was laid up in a boatyard until 1927 before being sold to a private owner. The ship was to have two other owners before being purchased by the Irish government in 1960 and used as a training vessel. After a number of years on the high seas, the ship was placed on display in Kilmainham Gaol where thousands of visitors learned of its remarkable history. In recent years, the ship was removed from the prison and it underwent a period of conservation and preservation and is now currently on display at the National Museum Collins Barracks, Dublin. | 29 Molly Childers (left) and Mary Spring Rice (right) posing with their cargo of guns from Hamburg. Erskine Childers (1870-1922) The Asgard on her return to Ireland in 1961. www.military.ie the defence forces magazine

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