Gerard Whelan was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, and has lived and worked in several European countries. After some time living in Dublin, he has returned to live in his native Wexford. He is the author of many books for children and a multiple award-winner. His first novel, The Guns of Easter, won the Eilís Dillon Memorial Award for first-time writers. Dream Invader later won the Bisto Book of the Year Award. He has also been shortlisted for the Reading Association of Ireland awards. Gerard is also the author of A Winter of Spies and Out of Nowhere.
War Children - Stories from Ireland's War of Independence
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to The Empty Steps, the first story in the book.
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to Mulligan's Drop, the second story in the book.
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to The King of Irishtown, the third story in the book.
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to Dead Man's Music, the fourth story in the book.
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to Services Rendered, the fifth story in the book.
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to The Poor Cow, the final story in the book.
The Guns of Easter
Download RBFS: Teaching ideas for fifth class from O'Brien Reading Programme
Download Teaching Guides: Gerard Whelan answers the top 20 questions his readers ask about The Guns of Easter
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide from O'Brien Teaching Guides Collection 1
A Winter of Spies - Ireland’s War of Independence: when the truth can get you killed
Download RBFS: Teaching ideas for sixth class from O'Brien Reading Programme
Out of Nowhere
Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide for Out of Nowhere from O'Brien Teaching Guides for Second Level Schools.
Six stories, one set in Dublin the others in the countryside, about children who get caught up in the War of Independence and suffer dire consequences.
It is 1916 and Europe is at war. From the poverty of the Dublin slums twelve-year-old Jimmy Conway is pulled between the British Army and the rebels in the Easter Rising. Real history seen through the eyes of a child from a master storyteller.
Sarah becomes involved in spying for Michael Collins during the War of Independence.
A young boy wakes up in a strange location remembering only his name, and with all evidence of the outside world seemingly erased. What has happened? And who are the strange monks looking after him? A chilling science fiction adventure from a master storyteller.
