He represented Northumberland West in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member from 1883 to 1886.
He was born near Cobourg in Upper Canada, the son of John Mulholland, an Irish immigrant, and studied at the Commercial College in Oswego, New York.
In 1857, with Alexander Kennedy, he purchased a general store in the nearby town of Alderville.
Around 1865, that business was sold and Mulholland moved to Cobourg where he opened a hardware and grocery store with Peter Brown.
[1] His son Robert Alexander managed a branch of the firm Mulholland & Brown in Port Hope and later served in the Canadian Senate.