Edward Whelan and Canadian history

Long before JFK or Joe Biden made their mark on politics, a man from county Mayo was making his on the political world of Canada in the middle of the nineteenth century. Despite playing a prominent role as a member of the House of Assembly which he was elected to at age 21, Whelan was all but forgotten about in Ireland and Mayo. That was until recently and a recent article in the Western People newspaper reported on plans to commemorate him in Ballina, where he was born in 1824:

Ballina has given the world many legendary figures, some of whom are memorialised in the town. Next one up to be commemorated is Edward Whelan who was born 200 years ago (1824). He emigrated with his mother in 1831 and ended up in Canada where he got a good education and became a member of prominent Irish societies. Bright and exciting, he quickly made his name. By the age of 18, Edward had become the editor of the Register, an Irish Roman Catholic and liberal newspaper strongly committed to repeal of the union between Ireland and England. Still in his teens, he also b e c a m e k n o w n a s a speaker at the Mechanics’ Institute and at the Young Men’s Catholic Institute, an organisation established by Irish-born Fr Richard O’Brien, in Prince Edward Island, Halifax. Later he established his own newspaper, The Palladium, writing in it: “Ireland will be a nation’.

Edward Whelan will be remembered in his native Ballina. again. And where is the obstacle to prevent the accomplishment of her Nationality? English hatred and English jealousy.” He advocated free government, universal suffrage, free education, free lands, the abolition of landlordism, and other measures for the relief and betterment of people on the island.

Though Prince Edward Island was the smallest and the poorest of the  North American colonies, Whelan observed: “Regarding our poverty in a commercial sense, we are entitled to boast, that we have taken the lead and set an example to all the others in the important matter of education.”

He was elected to represent King’s County in the House of Assembly at the age of 21 and campaigned for free land, free schools and responsible government. He became a Father of the Canadian Confederation in 1864.

He died aged only 43 in 1867, and was laid to rest in Charlottetown, capital of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )