Coleraine: Hercules Mulligan to be honoured in NI hometown

A Coleraine man said to have twice saved George Washington's life and now recognised as a revolutionary hero in the United States is to be honoured in his hometown.

Hercules Mulligan was born in Coleraine on 15 September 1740.

His family emigrated to America in 1746 where Mulligan would become an American Revolutionary War spy.

However, a number of NI-based multi-cultural groups have objected to the move over his past as a slave owner.

In a letter, sent to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and endorsed by about 18 community groups including the North West Migrants Forum and Belfast Multicultural Association, the move to honour him was "strongly condemned".

"This decision represents an attitude in the society that consistently finds justification to turn a blind eye to the issue of slavery," it said, adding a call for the council to "rescind its decision to commemorate" Mulligan.

Earlier this week, the council heard that an original motion to have a blue plaque erected in his honour was not feasible at this time.

Alliance councillor Yvonne Boyle, who proposed honouring Mulligan, said she was "delighted the leisure and development committee voted to recognise" him.

While his contribution to history had become largely unknown, the hit musical Hamilton sparked a renewed interest in Hercules Mulligan's story.

Seen as an influential mentor to US founding father Alexander Hamilton, Mulligan worked as a spy against the British.

A founder of the New York Manumission Society, an early organisation to promote the abolition of slavery, Mulligan worked as a tailor until retirement at the age of 80.

However, it has also been recorded that Mulligan was a slave owner.

Cato, a slave owned by Mulligan, was known to have gathered intelligence and spied on the British on behalf of the revolutionary during the American War of Independence.

Mulligan died in 1825 and is buried, close to Alexander Hamilton, in Manhattan's Trinity Churchyard.