David Alexander Mulholland
David Alexander Mulholland (5 October 1938 – 10 December 2003) was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary, known to the security forces for his alleged involvement in bombing attacks.
He was named as the driver of the first of the three car bombs which exploded minutes apart in the city centre of Dublin on 17 May 1974 and left a total of 26 people dead and almost 300 injured.
[2] Mulholland had been raised in Mourneview Street in Portadown but had moved across town to the newly built Killycomain estate upon getting married.
This brigade was founded in 1972 by UDR sergeant and permanent staff instructor (PSI) Billy Hanna, who had appointed himself its commander.
Weir alleged that the farm, owned by Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) reservist James Mitchell, was used as a UVF arms dump and bomb-making site.
[8] Journalist Joe Tiernan has suggested that the bombs were then placed onto a poultry lorry belonging to senior Mid-Ulster UVF member Robin Jackson, who drove it across the border into the Republic of Ireland and down to a carpark in the northern suburbs of Dublin.
After the bombs had been activated by Hanna, he and Jackson loaded the devices into the boots of the three designated cars that had been hijacked and stolen that morning in Belfast by a UVF gang known as "Freddie and the Dreamers", led by William "Frenchie" Marchant.
Mulholland was ordered by Hanna to drive a metallic green 1970 model Hillman Avenger registration number DIA 4063 into Parnell Street, located on the northside of Dublin's city centre.
The green Avenger, hijacked that morning in Belfast, had reached its final destination in the parking bay outside the Welcome Inn pub and Barry's supermarket, with a butcher's shop and a petrol station, the Westbrook Motors Company, nearby.
Two minutes later a second car bomb, a blue Ford Escort (whose driver remains unidentified), exploded in Talbot Street, killing another 14 people, mostly young women, one of whom, Colette Doherty, was nine months pregnant.
The third bomb, planted inside a blue Austin 1800 Maxi, went off in South Leinster Street at 17:32 and two more women were killed outright.
He is 35 years of age, 6 feet in height, well built, blue eyes, light brown hair, turning grey, large round features, very pale complexion.
Journalist Joe Tiernan alleged that Mulholland was collected in Portadown by the hijacker of the Avenger and he then drove the car down to Dublin.
[13] The third eyewitness, Nora O'Mahoney, picked out two separate photos of Mulholland and alleged that she had spoken to him at about 16:20 in D'Olier Street having asked him directions, which he had given to her before getting inside a green car with the registration letters DIA.
When the detective threatened him with extradition to the Republic of Ireland due to the overwhelming evidence against him, Mulholland named Hanna as the leader of the UVF bombing team.
