Historical/Biographical Note

Monica Vajrathan-Childers (b. Bangkok, Thailand, 1936) has ancestry from County Cork. She is the daughter of a Thai mother and a father with Irish and Swiss ancestry. Her grandfather was Joseph Culfield James (1860-1925), principal tutor to the Thai Royal Family. After attending university in Bangkok, Paris, and Illinois she worked for the United Nations in Asia and New York. She married Erskine Childers III, the journalist and son of Irish President Erskine Hamilton Childers (1905-1974). In New York they both held positions at the United Nations and developed relationships with key Irish diplomats and civil servants, including Sean MacBride and Garret Fitzgerald. She has contributed to international dialogue on women's rights and also works as a visual artist.