Bridget Whelan was born in December 1857 to James Whelan and Mary Delany1. She was baptized Roman Catholic on 11 December 1857 at Adamstown, Wexford, Ireland. Bridget’s father was a carpenter and a farmer2.
Bridget was the 9th of 11 children, though not all lived. She had three older brothers named Thomas; the first one lived from 1838-46, the second from 1847-50 and the last who was born in 1853. She also had two brothers named James, the first one did not live more than a year (1856-57) and the second was born after her in 1861. Her other brothers were Edward (1842) and Dennis (1850) and her sisters were Mary (1840), Kate (1842) and a younger sister Catherine Maria Theresa (1865). It is possible that the older Kate died before the younger Catherine was born but, so far, I have not been able to verify this.
She grew up on where her father farmed in Adamstown and lived there with her brothers and sisters until she married Thomas.

Bridget married Thomas Joseph Whelan on 18 September 1881 in Adamstown, Wexford2. Whelan ranks 79th in the most common names in Ireland, so it is not unheard of to have a Whelan marrying a Whelan.
Thomas and Bridget had six children: John Joseph (1883), Catherine (or Kathleen) (1885), James Patrick (1888), Mary Eliza (1891), Thomas Christopher (1892) who lived only nine months, and Bridget (1895)4,5.
Thomas was a baker and we assume that Bridget stayed at home as a baker’s wife looking after their children on St. John’s street in Enniscorthy.
Bridget died on 21 May 1899, at the age of 41, at her home on St. John’s Street in Enniscorthy from an accidental hemorrhage that lasted four days3.
Link to Bridget Whelan in Genealogy
1Baptisms (NCR) Ireland. Adamstown, Fern, Wexford. 11 December 1857. WHELAN, Bridget. Collection: Adamstown Diocese of Ferns, County of Wexford, Baptisms 13 April 1849 to 27 March 1861. https://registers.nli.ie//registers/vtls000633990#page/1/mode/1up: accessed 2018.
2Marriages (CR) Ireland. RD: New Ross, Adamstown, Carrickbyrne, Wexford. 18 September 1881. WHELAN, Thomas and WHELAN, Bridget. https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1881/11012/8026796.pdf: accessed 2018.
3Deaths (CR) Ireland. RD: Enniscorthy, Enniscorthy, Wexford. 21 May 1899. WHELAN, Bridget. https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1899/05795/4639264.pdf: accessed 16 April 2018.
4Census. 1901. Ireland. Wexford. Form B.10. Collection: National Archives of Ireland, 1901 Ireland Census Records. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai001271747/: accessed 19 December 2017
5Census. 1911. Ireland. Wexford. Form 12. Collection: National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003568749/: accessed 19 December 2017