Patrick Whelan
Patrick Whelan (4 September 1893 – 26 April 1916) was an Irish Volunteer, killed in action in Boland's Mill during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge at the time of the Easter Rising of 1916. He was 22 years old when he died and was awarded the 1916 Medal posthumously in 1941. Whelan House in Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, Dublin – where he was born – is named in his honour. Early life Patrick Whelan was born on 4 September 1893 to John Whelan, a fisherman, and his wife Mary Jane Mullen, at 69 Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, Dublin. At the time, around the late 1800s, there was an increased interest in the Irish cultural identity, which led to the Gaelic revival movement. Whelan was an active member of the Ringsend Gaelic League, and a renowned hurler who played for Fontenoy's Club in Irishtown. Like many in Ringsend he worked on the ships, where he was employed as a ship's carpenter. Whelan also became a member of the Irish Volunteers and fought and died for Ireland during the Easter Rising of 1916. Ahead of the Rising, which began at noon on Easter Monday 24 April, Whelan was dispatched to Tralee in County Kerry, only to return with the disheartening news of the capture of Roger Casement and "the bitter denunciation of the Germans" by Robert Monteith. Easter Week A member of the 3rd Battalion, Unit "D" Company, Dublin Brigade, Whelan fought under Commandant Éamon de Valera. Occupying Boland's Bakery around the corner from the flour mill on Grand Canal Street, and a mile to the south-east of the GPO, the 3rd battalion headquarters was at a key location, controlling as it did the railway line and the main road from Dún Laoghaire (then known as Kingstown) to the centre of the city. Throughout the Rising the 3rd Battalion was to cover a large area of South Dublin, with a lot more men expected to report for duty than actually did so on the day. The severely depleted numbers were the result of countermanding orders issued by Eoin MacNeill advising the Volunteers not to take part in the Rising. MacNeill had learnt of the arrest of Roger Casement and the subsequent loss of German arms. After confronting Patrick Pearse, who refused to be swayed by this revelation, MacNeill felt he had no option but to place a last minute news advertisement calling the Rising off. This caused tremendous confusion among the Volunteers, especially outside of Dublin. For those that did show up, the British, reportedly, "considered De Valera's forces the best trained and best led among the rebels". Whelan was one of the 14 Volunteers of Unit "D" Company, who occupied Boland's Mill at around noon on Easter Monday. In the first artillery fire of the week, Boland's Mill had been shelled by the gunboat "Helga" (now known as the Irish patrol vessel Muirchú) from the river Liffey. The "Helga", which had sailed from Dún Laoghaire earlier, would go on to bombard Liberty