Irish America

Mulligan

Hercules Mulligan: Tailor, Patriot, Spy

By Dave Lewis, Assistant Editor

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How an Irish tailor named Hercules Mulligan, and his accomplice, an enslaved man named Cato, twice saved George Washington from capture during the Revolutionary War. Hercules Mulligan was born in Coleraine, of what was then called County Londonderry to Episcopalians Hugh and Sarah Mulligan, on September 25, 1740. Six years later, the Mulligan family immigrated to New York, … [Read more...] about Hercules Mulligan: Tailor, Patriot, Spy

Roots: The Unimportance
of Being Mulligan

By Hugh A. Mulligan, Contributor
October / November 2001

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Irish literature and lore shows Mulligan little respect. The very opening sentence of James Joyce's acclaimed Ulysses introduces Buck Mulligan, a ribald braggart who, before many pages, is borrowing a quid to "get gloriously drunk so as to astonish the druidy druids," making an utter fool of himself in a "jester's dress of puce and yellow and a clown's cap" and identifying … [Read more...] about Roots: The Unimportance
of Being Mulligan