Denis Cullen

{{Short description|Irish trade unionist and politician (1878–1971)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2022}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Denis Cullen

| image =

| caption =

| office = Teachta Dála

| term_start = June 1927

| term_end = September 1927

| constituency = Dublin North

| nationality = Irish

| birth_date = {{birth date|1886|8|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Donabate, County Dublin, Ireland

| death_date = {{death date and age|1971|11|26|1886|8|19|df=y}}

| death_place = Dublin, Ireland

| party = Labour Party

| education =

| alma_mater =

| spouse = Mary Cullen

| children = 1

}}

Denis Cullen (19 August 1886 – 26 November 1971) was an Irish Labour Party politician and trade union official.{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/cullen-denis-a2276|title=Cullen, Denis|last=White|first=Lawrence William|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|access-date=1 August 2022}}

A baker by trade, during the 1910s he emerged as a leading figure in the Dublin branch of the Irish Bakers' National Amalgamated Union. At the 1918 national convention – at which the union's name was changed to the Irish Bakers, Confectioners, and Allied Workers Amalgamated Union – Cullen was elected national general secretary, commencing a twenty-five-year tenure (1918–1943), during which he was chief negotiator for both the national union and Dublin branch. He was also prominent in the leadership of the Irish Trades Union Congress (ITUC), serving almost continually on the national executive (1920–1939, 1940–1943), as treasurer (1929–1930), and for two terms as president (1925–1926, 1930–1931).

In 1925 the Labour Party identified high taxation as a government weakness and decided to contest the Dublin North and Dublin South by-elections. Cullen, as general secretary of the Irish Bakers, Confectioners and Allied Workers Amalgamated Union, was candidate in Dublin North with Thomas Lawlor, Irish Municipal Employees Union, in Dublin South.Taxation In Irish Free State, The Times, 19 January 1925. Neither of them were elected.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency at the June 1927 general election.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Denis-Cullen.D.1927-06-23/|title=Denis Cullen|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=11 November 2008}} He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election having only served 3 months as a TD.{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1529|title=Denis Cullen|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=11 November 2008}}