Galway’s only 1916 Rising fatality remembered

Ceremonies have been held to remember a police constable who was Galway’s only fatality in the 1916 Rising.

"Surrender, boys, I know ye all," is what Constable Patrick Whelan (34), of the Royal Irish Constabulary, is said to have shouted before his death.

Constable Whelan was killed during an engagement between the Irish Volunteers' Castlegar and Claregalway branches and the RIC at Carnmore crossroads on April 26th, 1916.

Relatives of Mr Whelan were among the attendance at the unveiling of a commemorative stone at Carnmore cross on Tuesday, and a subsquent wreath-laying ceremony at his grave in Galway city’s Bohemore cemetery.

The event was held as part of the city and county’s programme for the 1916 Rising.

Sinn Féín had expressed its opposition to the commemoration, with the party’s senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh describing it as “inappropriate”.

As part of the 1916 centenary, the Liam and Tom O'Flaherty Society is to host an open reading circle on Liam O'Flaherty's novel, Insurrection, in Galway City Museum on Thursday May 5th.