merrion street

Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan today launched a new permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks entitled 'Asgard: The 1914 Howth Gun Running Vessel Conserved'.

The yacht Asgard, an iconic item of Irish heritage and history, was formerly owned by the Irish nationalist and writer Erskine Childers and his wife Molly. Asgard was built in 1905 by one of Norway's most famous boat designers to the specifications of the newly married couple.

Asgard's most famous voyage in 1914 was part of a gun-running expedition. Childers, his wife and a small crew made the channel crossing into Howth harbour just north of Dublin, laden with a hold full of rifles from Germany to arm the Irish Volunteers. This gun-running expedition had been undertaken in response to the arming of the Ulster Volunteers by the Larne gun-running in April of that year.

Commenting on the launch of this important exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Minister Deenihan said:

Asgard links us directly to the tumultuous times, a hundred years ago, when the futures of Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe were about to change. The launch of this exhibition presents an opportunity to reflect on the complexities of the time and to remember Erskine Childers in the range of identities and roles - as a writer and sailor, as a soldier of the Empire who became an Irish Nationalist, and as a Republican that could not be reconciled to the outcome of the struggle, even as a member of the Treaty delegation.

I encourage everyone to come to see Asgard and the associated exhibition that tells her story and acknowledges the achievement of Erskine and Molly Childers and the other crew members of May, 1914.