Denis McCullough Totally Explained

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Denis McCullough (24th January 1883 – 11th September 1968) was a prominent Irish rebel in the early 20th century. Born in Belfast, Ireland McCullough was a separatist from an early age. When he was 17, his father had him inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood at the side door of a pub by a man who seemed to view the ritual as an unpleasant distraction to a night of drinking. The event disillusioned McCullough with the Brotherhood, and he soon took it upon himself to revitalize the organization.
   He did so over the years with the aid of Bulmer Hobson and Sean MacDermott. Together they founded the Dungannon Clubs for recruitment into the Brotherhood, and they worked to remove the "armchair republicans" from positions of power to be replaced with more determined men. Their cause prospered with the return of veteran Fenian Tom Clarke to Ireland in 1907.
   McCullough (Donnchadha Mac Con Uladh) was elected to fill the vacant seat of the President of the IRB late in 1915, a position he held during the Easter Rising of 1916, though he took no active role in the rising itself. He wasn't a member of the Military Committee that was responsible for its planning (and probably didn't even know of its existence until after the rising). It is likely that the other members of the 3-person IRB executive, Clarke and MacDermott (the treasurer and secretary) supported his nomination as president because, being isolated in Belfast, he'd be in no position to interfere with their plans. Nevertheless, during Holy Week he got word of what was afoot and travelled to Dublin to question Clarke and MacDermott, who avoided him as long as they could. Eventually they informed him of their plans, which he was brought to support.
   Though he was a member of the Irish Volunteers, it was decided that Belfast couldn't take part in the rising, as the dominance of the Ulster Volunteers in the northeast could lead to civil war. Therefore McCullough was to lead Volunteers in his area to Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, from where they'd link up with Liam Mellows in Connacht. When the Volunteer's Chief-of-Staff Eoin MacNeill issued a countermand, cancelling orders for the rising, McCullough remained in Belfast. Nevertheless he was arrested that week and spent several months incarcerated.
   It has been argued that as President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood at the time of the Easter Rising, the title President of the Irish Republic was by rights his, and not Patrick Pearse's. However, as he'd no real role in the planning of the insurrection, and wasn't in the vicinity of Dublin, where it was clear the leadership would need to be, it's understandable that Pearse was given the title instead. McCullough was likely glad to not have the title, as it certainly would have meant his execution along with the other leaders.
   McCullough's political activity went alongside maintaining and developing an instrument making and retail music business in Belfast’s Howard Street, generated from his original trade as a piano tuner. F.J. Bigger, the solicitor antiquarian and friend of Casement, encouraged its growth with orders for bagpipes for his boy bands. In time, after the move to Dublin, this became McCullough Pigott of Suffolk Street and marked the beginning of a highly successful and influential Free State business career. The most notable of the innovative native industries in which McCullough distinguished himself (inspired by Michael Collins) was to be his formation of the New Ireland Assurance Company. A director of Clondalkin Paper Mills, he also had a role in the Army School of Music, and the Gate Theatre. While in America as Special Commissioner for the Free State (leaving his wife in charge of the music business) his new premises in Dawson Street were entirely destroyed by an IRA land mine as a reprisal.
   On 20th November 1924, McCullough stood as the Cumann na nGaedhael candidate at a by-election in the Donegal constituency, following the resignation of Cumann na nGaedhael TD Peter Ward. He was elected to the 4th Dáil Éireann, but didn't stand again at the next general election, in June 1927.

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