Mulholland, Roger (1740–1818), architect and property developer, was born in the diocese of Derry. Nothing is known of his background, but on 31 January 1770 he married Jane Russell in Belfast; she was probably related to a John Russell, whose name appears along with Mulholland's in advertisements. Both men were carpenters, and Mulholland later worked on (and perhaps supervised) building projects initiated by the town's landlord, Arthur Chichester (qv), 5th earl of Donegall, including probably the new parish church of St Anne's. Mulholland leased a timber yard in Rosemary St., and later a larger one in Ann St. He eventually undertook the design and construction of a number of important buildings in the town. The First Presbyterian church in Rosemary St. was rebuilt by Mulholland in a striking elliptical shape; he completed it in 1783, and it remains one of Belfast's finest eighteenth-century buildings. He also built the house of correction on Howard St. In 1782 Mulholland subscribed £100 towards building Belfast's new White Linen Hall; this was a very large sum of money, and suggests that Mulholland was already prosperous. It is not known if he worked on the Linen Hall, though C. E. B. Brett (1928–2005) believed it ‘was in the highest degree probable’ that Mulholland was the architect, and that he was responsible for some elements of the design of the new streets around it, the commercial heart of Belfast. From 1783 Mulholland laid out other new streets of the town, and built and sold well over a hundred houses in Academy St., Talbot St., Donegall St., Donegall Place and Dunbar St., among others, on land he had leased from the earl of Donegall. Towards the end of his career, in 1796, Mulholland, who had leased property in Cromac, subscribed to the building of a new bridge there over the Lagan, which may have been built to his designs; he was one of the commissioners.
Mulholland was one of the founders of the Linen Hall library, and was president in 1791–2; he presented a three-volume set of Vitruvius Britannicus, a work on architecture, to the library. He was a member of the town's First Company of Volunteers from the 1770s, and named one of his sons for its captain, Waddell Cunningham (qv). There seem to have been at least three other sons and two daughters. It is not clear how or if Roger Mulholland was related to Andrew Mulholland (qv). It is possible that there was a connection to the three Mulholland sisters who were so celebrated in Victorian society – Rosa (qv), Lady Gilbert; Ellen, wife of Charles Russell (qv), Lord Russell of Killowen; and the novelist Clara Mulholland – and whose three McLaughlin cousins made similarly interesting marriages. Roger Mulholland died in Belfast 30 November 1818, leaving an estate valued at over £3, 800.