THE BROTHER OF Terence Wheelock has continued his family’s long-running campaign for an independent public enquiry into the death of the 20-year-old in 2005. 

This week marked 20 years since Terence was arrested by gardaí and detained at a cell in Store Street Garda Station on suspicion of involvement with a car theft.

On Monday, the anniversary of the arrest, members of the Wheelock family laid flowers outside the garda station and visited Terrence’s grave.

Hours after his arrest in 2005, garda accounts said that Terence was found unconscious in his cell. He subsequently slipped into a coma and was brought to the Mater Hospital, where he remained in a coma for over three months before his death on 16 September. 

In 2007, a jury at a Coroner’s Court returned a verdict of suicide – four to three. Terence’s brother Sammy told The Journal that his family have always rejected the verdict.

A 2010 GSOC investigation concluded that there was no credible evidence that Terence had been subjected to mistreatment while in custody at Store Street. However, it identified several failings, including “a lack of clear instruction” that led to the presence of a ligature suspension point in his cell and a lack of process which allowed the deceased to bring a ligature with him into the cell. 

GSOC’s report on the matter also confirmed that when the Wheelock family was informed in 2005 that Terence was en route to hospital they were initially told he was being transported to St James’ Hospital. He was in fact being taken by ambulance to the Mater Hospital. 

The GSOC report acknowledged this error, which led to Terence’s mother and sister being taken to the wrong hospital, “caused great concern and upset” for the family who stated that as a result “Mrs Wheelock lost precious time with her son”. 

Terence Wheelock was found unconscious in his cell at Store Street garda station. Family photo Family photo

Twenty years since Terence’s arrest, crowds gathered outside Store Street Garda Station yesterday to call for a public enquiry into Terence’s death and its subsequent handling by gardaí.

The peaceful gathering moved to the Garden of Remembrance yesterday afternoon. A number of politicians, including Labour’s Marie Sherlock and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, Eoin Ó Broin, Lynn Boylan, and several Dublin city councillors, were present.

Labour TD Marie Sherlock and the party’s Dublin MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin both spoke at the weekend protest, having raised his case in both the Dáil and the Seanad over the years. Ó Ríordáin has been campaigning alongside the family for the past 20 years.

20 years on & still no justice for the the family of Terence Wheelock

It’s time for truth. It’s time for justice. #JFTW #jftw_terence_wheelock pic.twitter.com/Gl7RJOUqUw

— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) June 7, 2025

Many politicians have championed the family’s call in the past: People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy spoke at a protest in 2021, while Councillor Conor Reddy from the same party has long been a supporter of the Wheelock family’s campaign.

In June 2021, Murphy raised the Wheelocks’ case in the Dáil with Justice Minister Heather Humphreys. The minister said that while she extended her sympathies to the family for their loss, a further inquiry into Terence’s death was “not being considered at this time”.

Last week, Murphy again mentioned the case in the Dáil in statements following on from the public apology made by the Justice Minister to the family of Shane O’Farrell.

For 20 years we’ve been campaigning for justice for Terence Wheelock. Privileged to be invited by the Wheelock family to speak at today’s #Justice4Terence march.

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— Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP (@aodhanoriordain.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 19:14

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon, who was a childhood friend of Terence Wheelock, also raised the issue in the Dáil in July 2021, stating that the community he represents “still has many questions about Terence’s death and it blights their relationship with the gardaí in many ways”.

“I understand that there was a GSOC investigation into this matter 11 years ago but so many questions are left outstanding and so much more evidence has emerged in that time that it warrants an independent investigation finally to bring some finality, some truth and some justice to the Wheelock family.”

A similar protest in 2021. Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

Sammy Wheelock, Terence’s older brother, today told The Journal that he and his family simply want closure.

“We demand answers. We need those answers. We want nothing more, just answers into what had happened to Terence in that cell,” he said.

His brother Larry and his father, who both were tireless advocates for the campaign for an independent public inquiry, have both passed away in recent years.

Terence’s mother is now 75-years-old. Sammy said that all she wants is an answer to what happened to her son in 2005. 

Alongside the inquiry, the Wheelock family are also calling for Diamond Park on Sean McDermott Street, where Terence had spent much of his time as child, to be renamed ‘Terence Wheelock Memorial Park’.

“Terence had grown up in that park. He spent most of these youth [there]. There’s so many times when my dad would ask me to go and get him, or ask any of my brothers to go and get down again. You’d find him in the park, in the Diamond Park on Sean McDermott Street,” Sammy said.

Sammy said that he is hopeful for engagement with the government, and that a public inquiry may occur within the lifetime of this government. He has written to a number of previous ministers for Justice about the prospect of an inquiry.

“If they keep turning it down, why do they keep turning it down? What have they got to lose? To meet with my family, discuss this case with my family, to sit around the table and have a conversation – what have they got to lose?”