Mullen, Michael (1919–82), trade unionist, republican, and politician, was born 1 February 1919 at 10 New St., Church St., Dublin, son of John Mullen, glassblower, and Martha Mullen (née Smith). Educated at St Michan's, Halston St., Dublin, he was forced to leave school at 14 to work in a butcher's after his father's death from pneumonia. At 16 he moved to a job in the Ever Ready battery factory in Portobello, where he joined the ITGWU and was elected a shop steward the following year. A member of the IRA during the 1940s, he left in 1945 to join the Labour party in the belief that ‘socialism was the only way out of the morass my prople find themselves in’ (Ir. Times, 2 Nov. 1982). Also in 1945 he became a full-time trade union official when he was appointed branch assistant to Dublin no. 1 branch ITGWU. From 1951 to 1964 he was branch secretary of the union's no. 4 branch, representing hotels and restaurants, his first year coinciding with a contentious hotel strike in Dublin (October 1950–June 1951). Appointed national group secretary of the ITGWU in 1964, and senior adviser in 1966, he was elected general secretary of the union in 1969; having been elected to the post on three consecutive occasions, he was made permanent in 1972 and held the post until his death. During his term as general secretary the union expanded considerably in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and he was responsible for a number of important initiatives, in particular the establishment of the development services division in 1972 to provide adequate support services for union officials, and the creation of the cultural division in 1980.
Unsuccessful as an independent and subsequently as a Labour candidate for Dublin North Central and Dublin North-West in the general elections of 1951 and 1957 respectively, he was returned as Labour TD for Dublin North-West in the general elections of 1961 and 1965, retiring from politics when he became ITGWU general secretary in 1969. Returning to politics in 1973 when he was one of Labour's nominees appointed to Seanad Éireann by the taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, he was an unsuccessful Labour candidate for Dublin (Cabra) in the 1977 general election during a divisive campaign in which Labour ran three candidates in the constituency. Strongly republican in his political views, he opposed Irish entry to the EEC, fearing the loss of sovereignty, and he resigned briefly from Labour in opposition to the criminal law jurisdiction act (1978). During the early 1970s he acted as an intermediary between the Irish government and IRA prisoners on hunger strike in Mountjoy and Portlaoise prisons, and took part in demonstrations in support of H-block hunger strikers in 1980–81. In 1982 he acted as a guarantor to the deal between the Dublin independent TD Tony Gregory and the taoiseach, Charles Haughey, whereby Gregory agreed to support Haughey's minority government in return for inner-city improvements.
First elected to Dublin corporation in June 1960 as councillor for area no. 4, he was elected alderman in June 1967 and resigned 3 March 1969. He served on a number of corporation committees including cultural, school meals, general services, housing, and planning and development, and was a corporation representative on the city of Dublin vocational education committee, Jervis St. Hospital board, the Irish Tourist Association, the municipal gallery art advisory committee, Dublin health authority, and Dublin port and docks board. Concerned about human rights, he was a member of Amnesty International, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, which established the Michael Mullen memorial trust fund to provide training, education, and humanitarian aid to South Africa. He was also a member of the executive of the ICTU, the Irish Goods Council, the boards of Aer Rianta and Bord Fáilte, and chairman of CERT, the training body for the catering industry.
Michael Mullen lived at 202 Navan Road, Dublin, with his wife, Anne Peavoy, three daughters and two sons. He suffered a stroke and died 1 November 1982 in Frankfurt, Germany, while attending an international trade union conference. A bust of Michael Mullen by Tom McCarthy is in the Irish Labour History Museum, Beggars Bush, Dublin.