Denis McCullough

Denis McCullough (Irish: Donnchadha Mac Con Uladh; 24 January 1883 – 11 September 1968) was a prominent Irish nationalist political activist in the early 20th century.

McCullough was born at 1 Barrack Street, Belfast, on 24 January 1883, to Daniel McCullough, a publican, and Margaret Magee.

McCullogh was born in to a republican family in west Belfast, both his father and grandfather were in the IRB, as was his brother.

McCullough was a separatist nationalist from an early age. When he was 17, his father had him inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) 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 IRB, and he took it upon himself to revitalise the organization, with assistance from, among others, Bulmer Hobson and Seán Mac Diarmada. The trio founded the Dungannon Clubs as a non-sectarian, republican, separatist organization (it was later absorbed into Sinn Féin), for recruitment. They worked to remove "armchair republicans" from positions of power. Their cause prospered with the return of veteran Fenian Tom Clarke to Ireland in 1907.

McCullough 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 was not a member of the Military Committee that was responsible for its planning. It is likely that the other members of the three man IRB executive, Clarke and MacDermott (the treasurer and secretary) supported his nomination as president because, as he was isolated in Belfast, he would 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 came to support. Although McCullough was an officer of the Irish Volunteers, in charge of 200 men in Belfast, it was decided that Belfast would not take part in the rising, given that the dominance of the Ulster Volunteers in the northeast could lead to sectarian civil war.

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