Don Mullan

Early life and education

Mullan was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1956 and attended St. Eugene's Primary School, St Joseph's Boys' School, St. Patrick's College, Kiltegan, Co. Wicklow; St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny; Ulster Polytechnic; Holy Ghost College, Dublin; and Iona College, New Rochelle, New York.

Action From Ireland

Mullan was Director of AFrI (Action from Ireland) 1979–93 during which he and colleagues developed the Great Famine Project. He was one of the first in the Irish world to recognise the approaching 150th anniversary of The Great Famine (The Great Hunger) as "a unique historical moment". AFrI's project helped to generate awareness of the anniversary all over Ireland and throughout the world. Mullan established a "famine walk" in Co. Mayo, commemorating an actual walk of starving Irish peasants in 1848. The walk attracted the attention of ABC, NBC and CBS News during its first three years, 1988–90. The walk continues as an annual event. As part of the project Mullan established several connections with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and was made an Honorary Chief. The Great Famine Project was multi-disciplined and involved publications, documentaries, dramas and commemorative events including the marking of forgotten mass Famine graves containing the sacred remains of thousands of Irish victims.

St. Brigid's Peace Cross and St. Brigid's Fire

With five young boys from Derry, Mullan founded in 1983 the St. Brigid's Peace Cross and was instrumental in having St. Brigid's Fire in Kildare permanently rekindled on 1 February 2006. The fire had burned in Kildare for over a thousand years before it was extinguished during the Protestant Reformation.

Humanitarian work

Mullan worked for the humanitarian agency Concern Worldwide from 1994 until 1996, during which he visited Rwanda and the refugee camps in Zaire. He also worked in Brazil, from 1983 to 1984, during which he organised famine relief to the north-east of the country.

Mullan was detained at Johannesburg and refused entry into apartheid South Africa in 1985. In 1994 he attended the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela as the guest of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in recognition of his work on behalf of the anti-apartheid movement. Mullan was invited by Archbishop Tutu to attend a symposium on Robben Island in May 1994, the week following the inauguration of President Mandela. The symposium addressed the future use of Robben Island in a new South Africa and Mullan was invited to address the gathering concerning his own work on harnessing the memory of the Great Irish 'Famine' (1845–1849) in fighting injustice and oppression today.

Concern Universal – Children in Crossfire

In 1996, the late Allo Donnelly, then Chairman of Concern Universal, a UK-based World Development charity wishing to expand into Ireland, approached Mullan and asked him to head up the operation. By then Mullan had begun his career in investigative journalism and declined the offer. However, he strongly recommended a Derry-based friend, Richard Moore, for the position. Moore had participated in Mullan's re-enactment of the Choctaw Nations 'Trail of Tears' charity walk from Oklahoma to Mississippi in 1992, during which Mullan spoke to him extensively about his humanitarian work with AFrI. During his meeting with Allo Donnelly, Mullan recalled Moore's expressed desire to do similar work. Moore was interviewed for the position and subsequently employed by Concern Universal, setting up the Irish section of the charity as 'Children in Crossfire', named after a BBC documentary of the same name that had featured Moore in 1974. In 2006 'Children in Crossfire' separated from Concern Universal and is now an independent Development Agency in Ireland.

Dyslexia

Mullan was diagnosed with dyslexia in 1994, and is a member of the International Dyslexia Association. He has authored and edited several books and documentaries and acted as co-producer and associate producer in three award-winning movies Bloody Sunday Omagh, and Five Minutes of Heaven. In April 2004 he was keynote speaker at an International Symposium on dyslexia in Dublin.

Bloody Sunday

At the age of 15, Mullan witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry. He was participating in his first Civil Rights March. His 1997 best-selling book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday is officially recognised as an important catalyst that led to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision in 1998 to establish a new Bloody Sunday Inquiry. The Inquiry opened on 27 March 2000. It was the longest and most expensive Inquiry in British legal history. The results were published on 15 June 2010. British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the House of Commons that afternoon where he acknowledged, among other things, that the paratroopers had fired the first shot, had fired on fleeing unarmed civilians, and shot and killed one man who was already wounded. He then apologised on behalf of the British Government.

Mullan was co-producer, source writer, and actor in the 2002 award-winning Granada/Hell's Kitchen movie Bloody Sunday, directed by Paul Greengrass, which was inspired by his book.

Public Speaking

As a public speaker Mullan has addressed audiences throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe, Canada, Brazil, and the United States on justice, peace and human rights issues. Amongst the colleges and universities which Mullan has spoken at are: Harvard University, Massachusetts (2004), Villanova University, Pennsylvania (2004), Georgetown University, Washington, DC (2003), Seattle University, Washington (2002) and Notre Dame University, Indiana (2001). In 1986 the Irish American Cultural Organisation described his lecture tour on the Great Hunger as "one of the most successful in recent years."

Gordon Banks

In 2006, Mullan published a boyhood memoir entitled 'Gordon Banks – A Hero Who Could Fly' in which he outlines the extraordinary influence for good that Gordon Banks, the 1966 England World Cup winning goalkeeper, had on his life. Gordon Banks travelled to Ireland to launch the book. Consequently, Mullan and Banks became close friends. Through Banks' Stoke City FC colleague, Terry Conroy, Mullan was introduced to sculptor Andrew Edwards. Edwards, Carl Payne and Julian Jeffery created the triple statue honouring the Stoke City and England legendary winger, Sir Stanley Matthews. Mullan travelled all over England in a quest to find a sculptor to help him create the first monument in the Western World to a goalkeeper. This included viewing several of the sporting monuments of Sir Philip Jackson. None moved him like the Matthews monument.
Mullan created the Gordon Banks Monument Committee who commissioned Edwards to do a triple statue of Banks. Of Edwards Mullan said, "He is a genius. He has the ability to breathe life into bronze. He's an unrecognised national treasure and through the Banks monument – I hope to change that!" Mullan was successful in getting the iconic Brazilian soccer star, Pelé, and his longstanding friend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, to agree to unveil the first phase of the monument at the Britannia Stadium on 12 July 2008. The unveiling also included a Gordon Banks XI vs. Pelé XI celebrity charity football match, with Tutu acting as assistant manager to Pelé. The game celebrated the choice of South Africa and Brazil for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

Awards

He has received Honorary Degrees from Iona College, New Rochelle, New York (1997) Mount Aloysius College, Cresson, Pennsylvania (2001) and DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois (2011). In March 1998, he was Grand Marshal of the San Diego St. Patrick's Day Parade. On 9 December 2002, Mullan received A Defender of Human Dignity Award from the International League for Human Rights at the United Nations, New York. In October 2003 he received from the Ancient Order of Hibernians of America the Sean MacBride Humanitarian Award. In May 1990, Mullan was made an Honorary Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, an honour he shares with the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from DePaul University in Chicago.

Mullan has been published in The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, Ireland on Sunday, the Sunday Tribune, The Examiner, Magill Magazine, la Repubblica, The Times (London), The Guardian, Journal do Brasil and Irish America.

Books

Little Book Series

Documentaries

1. Sr. Helen Prejean and the Death Penalty
2. Kim Phuc (The little girl burning with napalm in the 1972 iconic Vietnam photograph) visits Richard Moore and Clare Gallagher (who lost her eyesight in the 1998 Omagh Bomb)
3. In the Game of the Father (European Champion boxer, Charlie Nash, and his sons)
4. The Murder of Seamus Ludlow
5. The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings (Part 1)
6. The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings (Part 2)
7. Bloody Sunday: The Right to Truth (Part 1)
8. Bloody Sunday: (Part 2)
9. Dr. Deirdre Killelea of The Panda Foundation (Helping children with ADHD)
10. Millvina Dean, Titanic Survivor

Films