Mulhall, Michael George (1836–1900) writer and newspaper proprietor and editor, was born at 100 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, the sixth of the ten children (six boys and four girls) of Thomas Mulhall and Catherine Flood. His father, his uncle John B. Mulhall, and his elder brother Christopher were all members of the legal profession. This was a remarkably religious family: all four of his sisters were nuns in different congregations and two uncles were priests – Fr Joseph Mulhall SJ at one time was provincial of the Jesuits in Australia and Fr William Mulhall (d. 1867) was a well-known and esteemed curate at Westland Row, Dublin, in the 1840s until his appointment as parish priest of Rush, Co. Dublin.
Mulhall was educated at the Irish College in Rome. On 10 June 1868 he married Marion MacMurrogh Murphy (herself a prodigious writer) in Dublin. By 1860 he had gone to South America and joined his brother Edward Thomas, with whom he founded the Standard on 1 May 1861. This was the first English-language daily newspaper in South America, and Mulhall maintained contact with it until 1894. The brothers were innovators, as shown by their decision to be the owners of the first newspaper in South America to purchase, import, and install a linotype printing plant, in 1861. In the same year the Handbook of the River Plate was published – the first English book to be printed in Argentina. Subsequent editions appeared in 1863, 1869, 1875, 1876, 1885 and 1892.
By 1878 Mulhall had taken up residence in Europe and was honoured for his work by Pope Leo XIII. Like his brother Edward Thomas, Michael Mulhall was well connected in political, commercial, and financial circles. He was often criticised and castigated because of his political opinions and the editorial stance of the Standard, which was quite British in its views and outlook. Mulhall died at Killiney, Co. Dublin, on 12 December 1900, just a year after his brother Edward Thomas. His wife Marion died in Kent on 15 November 1922. Mulhall's principal works are Progress of the world (1880), Balance sheet of the world 1870–1880 (1881), Dictionary of statistics (1883), and History of prices since 1850 (1885).