 His grandparents Mary Alden Childers and Robert Erskine Childers and the latter's double first cousin Robert Barton were all Irish nationalists involved heavily with the negotiation of Irish independence; which ultimately led to his grandfather's execution during the Irish Civil War.His great aunt was Gretchen Osgood Warren.Childers was born in Dublin to Erskine Hamilton Childers and his first wife Ruth Ellen Dow.