Funeral of James Whelan, Finglas, North Dublin?

Thu 11 Aug 2022 at 23:00

A TV gangland funeral filmed in Dublin this week for RTE series Kin echoes one staged for notorious criminal James Whelan earlier this year.

Youths riding scrambler motorbikes were filmed accompanying a funeral cortege as part of an upcoming storyline revolving around the fictitious Kinsella criminal empire.

Mourners dressed in black one carrying a picture of the ‘victim’ and another flowers, follow the hearse carrying the coffin, which has ‘Brother’ emblazoned on the roof of the vehicle.

From the images it appears not to be the main Kinsella family affected itself as none of the major characters are pictured in the scenes filmed in Bluebell in Dublin yesterday.

Gangland shooting victim James Whelan was buried in a golden coffin at a funeral mass in north Dublin in April, with some of his pals accompanying the cortege riding scrambler bikes.

Whelan was a major motorbike enthusiasts and was gunned down by rivals in the ‘Mr Flashy’ gang.

Dozens of bikers staged a show of strength at the funeral of ‘Whela’, doing doughnuts, wheelies and revving before, during and after his funeral at River Mount Parish church in Finglas.

At Whelan’s funeral mass Fr Seamus Aherne said he wished the sanctions imposed against the Kinahan cartel could extend across “the whole plethora of drug suppliers everywhere”.

He fumed: “I don’t care what clan they belong to or who they are. They are a vicious deadly virus on our young people.

Kin is due to return to TV screens later this year, with back to back series two and three being filmed around the capital this Summer.

The crime drama proved to be the top favourite among all TV dramas in 2021 on RTÉ1, with 687,000 viewers watching on RTÉ1 and a phenomenal 2.5 million streams on the RTE Players.

The opening episode of the hit series – which has been sold worldwide – was the most watched programme on the RTÉ Player across 2021, with over 515,000 streams alone.

Viewers in the final episode of series one saw rival cartel boss Eamon Cunningham (Ciarán Hinds) gunned down in a Belgian airport by Michael Kinsella (Charlie Cox), in a move orchestrated by Amanda Kinsella (Clare Dunne).

Kin was created by Peter McKenna and Ciaran Donnelly, who along with stars from the show maintain that the drama was not inspired by the infamous Kinahan/ Hutch Feud?