Lilian Seenoi-Barr, Director of Programmes, North West Migrants Forum. (Photo: Jim McCafferty Photography)
The committee approved a motion that the council apply to the Ulster History Circle for a blue plaque in honour of Hercules Mulligan who was born in Coleraine but emigrated with his family to north America in 1746. A spy during the American Revolutionary War Mulligan was a founding father of the New York Manumission Society, an early American organisation founded to promote the abolition of slavery.
However NWMF, citing evidence from the US Federal Census, have shown that Mulligan was still a slave-owner in 1790.
“We are disappointed and appalled by this decision to honour Hercules Mulligan who was a slave-owner even five years after he helped set up the New York Manumission. Calling Hercules Mulligan a hero after his record is glorifying slavery and that is disgraceful,” said NWMF Director of Programmes Lilian Seenoi-Barr. The forum has written to CC&GBC condemning the