William McMullen

William McMullen (22 July 1888 – 12 December 1982) was an Irish trade unionist and politician. A member of the Labour movement, McMullen primary work was a trade unionist, but he was also a successful politician who secured office in the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Despite coming from a Presbyterian family, McMullen was also an avowed Irish republican, bitterly opposing the partition of Ireland in the 1920s and joining the Republican Congress in the 1930s. In the 1940s McMullen became the leader of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and in the 1950s, he became a member of the Irish senate.

Early life Born into a Presbyterian family in Belfast, McMullen began working in the shipyards and became an active trade unionist. In 1907 he met James Larkin during the 1907 carters' strike in Belfast. While working at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in 1910 he met James Connolly and was thereafter Connolly's most prominent supporter in Belfast, acting as the first Chairman of the Independent Labour Party in the city. Because of this move into radical politics, McMullen was unable to find work in Belfast and in 1914 he emigrated to the Britain. Despite coming bottom of the poll, he was elected on transfers from Joe Devlin, the only Nationalist Party candidate. In Parliament, he was fiercely critical of the partition of Ireland and he challenged the Ulster Unionist Party over unemployment. In 1928, he joined the rest of the party in walking out, earning themselves suspensions from the body.

Following the restructuring of constituencies, McMullen stood in Belfast Falls in 1929. The Nationalist Party stood Richard Byrne, a publican and landlord. Devlin offered to secure McMullen a seat in the Senate of Northern Ireland should he stand down, but McMullen refused the offer. He produced a newspaper, the Northern Worker, claiming that Byrne was a slum landlord. Byrne secured an injunction to stop distribution two days before the election and beat McMullen by around 1,400 votes.

In June 1934 McMullen stood in a by-election for a seat in Belfast Central, He was declared bankrupt in the High Court on 16 September 1952, which ipso facto vacated his seat, despite his having promptly discharged his bankruptcy. He was returned unopposed on 4 February 1953 in the by-election to fill the vacancy. On 1 September 1953 he resigned to join the board of Córas Iompair Éireann.