He was a half-brother of James Dunwoody Bulloch, who served as a foreign agent in Great Britain on behalf of the Confederacy, in part to arrange blockade runners.

Irvine and his elder half-brother James Dunwoody Bulloch served in the Confederate armed forces and as foreign agents for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

In 1861 Bulloch served as a midshipman aboard the CSS Nashville, visiting the port of Southampton in England.

Midshipman Bulloch was posted to England for foreign service and he served with distinction aboard the CSS Alabama.

Upon his return to Liverpool, Irvine discovered that he had been promoted to lieutenant, but had no government to serve in that capacity as the Civil War was over and the Confederacy had collapsed into history.

In 1869, when his sister Mittie and the Roosevelt family toured Europe, the first port they reached was in Liverpool where a joyous reunion took place.

Both uncles were denied entrance to USA, but through family influence they entered through Canada and visited their sister Mittie.

went to Harvard, he was already dreaming of writing a book on a neglected aspect of American military history, the role played by the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812.

's father took the family on their grand tour in 1869, TR spent time with those uncles in Liverpool, their first port of call on the trip.

Irvine and his elder half-brother James Dunwoody Bulloch, who had served in the U.S. Navy for 14 years before joining a private shipping company, were both seafaring men.

Irvine lived in Sydenham Avenue, Liverpool, and died at the age of 56 at Selby Tower, Llandrillo yn Rhos, Colwyn Bay, Wales.

Both came under assumed names, as they were among the Confederates who were at that time exempted from the amnesty... My uncle Irvine Bulloch was a midshipman on the Alabama, and fired the last gun discharged from her batteries in the fight with the Kearsarge.