Coroner’s Court, Inquest into the death of RIC Constable Patrick Whelan, 1916

File of handwritten material, including signed sworn witness statements, relating to the Inquest held at Eglinton Street Barracks, Galway into the death of RIC Constable Patrick Whelan, on 26^th April 1916. Whelan was shot following an exchange of gun fire with Irish Volunteers close to Carnmore Cross early that morning.

The Inquest was conducted by the Deputy Coroner, Louis Edward O’Dea, for the Western Division of the County of Galway, Solicitor, and his Jury, with evidence provided by Dr William Sandys, George B. Heard, County Inspector RIC, Navan, Co. Meath, and Head Constable Patrick J. Killacky, Eglinton Street Barracks

Includes list of the 13 jury members; resolution of sympathy from the Jury to the family of Whelan; proposal to adjourn inquest until 3 May; and a sworn statement from Dr Sandy, advising that he found wounds ‘...caused by pellets of number of four gunshot (one of which I extracted)...Death was caused by haemorrhage of these vessels and by shock’. Also the statement of George B. Heard, County Inspector RIC, with most pages signed or initially by Heard, stating that following a report of an insurrection he ‘...left Barracks at about 3.20 am on the morning of the 26^th of April 1916. I was accompanied by a party of thirteen police including the deceased Constable Patrick Whelan...We went in eight motor cars’, also, ‘...I know that the shot that killed Constable Whelan was not fired by John Mulroyan but I saw him fire many shots subsequently. Constable Hamilton was subsequently wounded in the leg ...’.  Also a signed statement of Head Constable Patrick J. Killacky, Eglinton Street Barracks, Galway, and a pre-printed vellum Inquisition statement stating that the death of Whelan was ‘caused by a wound inflicted by a gunshot on the morning of the 26^th of April 1916 and that the gunshot which caused the death was fired by some person or persons unknown’, signed by the Jurors and the Deputy Coroner.