Terence Wheelock - Sixteen Years Dead And Still No Justice!
Éirígí members attended a protest in Dublin yesterday (June 26) in support of the “Justice for Terence Wheelock” campaign. The Gardaí arrested Terence, aged 20, in 2005 when on the way from his home in Dublin’s North Inner City to buy a paintbrush.
Brought to Store Street Garda Station, he was subsequently hospitalised and spent three months in a coma before passing away in September 2005.
Marching for justice from Parnell Square to Store Street Garda station
The Wheelock family have campaigned since then for the truth to emerge in relation to what happened Terence when in Garda custody. In the period following his death, well-attended marches, picket and meetings were held, often supported by others who have suffered mistreatment at the hands of the Gardai.
However, both the coroner’s inquest and the Garda Siochana Ombudsman’s Commissions investigation returned verdicts of suicide, despite multiple inconsistencies in the evidence. They also failed to provide any credible explanation for the extensive bruising on Terence’s body.
During this initial period of campaigning by the family, they suffered repeated harassment by the Gardai, eventually resulting in the Wheelock’s having to move out of their family home of 21 years.
Despite this, their dedication to securing justice for Terence has not waned and they are now seeking a fully independent public inquiry into his death, as well as all of those who die at the hands of the Gardaí.
Outside Store Street Garda station
Éirígí fully supports all those who are seeking to hold the Gardaí to account for their actions – most especially when those actions have resulted in the deaths of their loved ones.
The establishment of the Garda Ombudsman (2007) and the Policing Authority (2016), as well as other changes to policing, have failed to deliver a modern, transparent and accountable policing service in the Twenty-Six Counties.
Policing generally, and in working class communities in particular, is still too often defined by Garda intimidation, violence and cover-up.
As Gloria Nkencho, the sister of George Nkencho, killed by Gardai in December 2020, said recently, “what class you belong to sometimes determines sometimes how you’re going to be treated in society”.
Grassroots political activism is an important tool in combating Garda abuses and failures. Events such as the protest today are crucial and hopefully will lead to the Wheelock family eventually getting the answers they deserve.
Too many questions about the death of Terence Wheelock remain unanswered