Irish American Partnership
John Cullinane’s illustrious career in the software industry is known far beyond the Massachusetts technology sphere. Having graduated from Northeastern University, he went on to create the Cullinane Corporation, later Cullinet, which was among the first software companies to go public in 1977. When Cullinet was sold in 1989, its founder turned his attention to a new challenge: providing mentorship and support to emerging talent in Northern Ireland.
A child of Irish immigrants and native Irish speakers, John’s mother Margaret arrived in the United States from Dunmore East in Waterford in 1929. Sixty years later, John was asked to mentor and support Irish technology entrepreneurs while promoting business ties and job creation between Northern Ireland and the U.S. “I come out of an entrepreneurial background and I’m used to creating jobs so when I first went to Belfast, I looked around and recognized that there is a very talented group of people in Northern Ireland. Belfast, the most powerful industrial city at one time, could compete with global capacity once again if they started investing in things like high tech.”
John helped attract much-needed U.S. investment through the creation of the Friends of Belfast to promote partnerships, strategic alliances, and entrepreneurship as the way forward for Northern Ireland. This outreach and networking helped secure jobs that would lead to prosperity and bolster peace in the region. “I did everything in my power to help create jobs in Northern Ireland to make it possible for people from both Protestant and Catholic traditions to become involved. And they did.”
