Louis Michael Cullen (born 1932) is an Irish diplomat, academic, historian, author and Japanologist.
[citation needed] Cullen was posted to the Irish embassy in Paris as a diplomat, and he developed an interest in the former trading links between Ireland and France.
[citation needed] Cullen's close study of economic trends has led to a more nuanced understanding of aspects of Irish life in 1700–1850.
A traditional view had been that the economic decline of Dublin from 1801 was linked to the 1800 Act of Union with Britain, and the loss of the Parliament of Ireland and local political control.
Cullen considered that the decline was inevitable, given the new steam-powered Industrial Revolution, and would have happened even if no union had occurred, and if Grattan's Parliament had managed to secure a high level of Irish autonomy.