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.

[7] 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"[8] by Robert Monteith.

[9] 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.

The severely depleted numbers were the result of countermanding orders issued by Eoin MacNeill advising the Volunteers not to take part in the Rising.

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.

Ordered by Major-General William Lowe to take Mount Street Bridge "at all costs",[13] the fighting that ensued there would result in two thirds of British casualties for the entire week, despite the Volunteers being heavily outnumbered.

[14] Despite being under ‘incessant’ sniping on the Wednesday,[12] the return sniper fire from Boland's Mill and the railway tracks managed to keep the British garrison in nearby Beggars Bush Barracks pinned down that day and throughout Easter week.

The British advance was duly met by a heavy volley of fire from the "D" Unit in Boland's Mill and "driven back in disorder".

O’Byrne's brother Peter, the Section Commander of Unit "D" and Volunteer Willie Bruen constructed a temporary coffin and buried Whelan's body under a large heap of clinkers in the yard of the building outside the engine room.

This statue was donated by Patrick's younger brother, Thomas A. Whelan (1 April 1898 – 29 December 1960), who founded the Ringsend branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society (CYMS).