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Background:
Andrew Cullin¹, Chief Detective of Montreal, Que., was born near Corofin, county Clare, Ireland, September 3, 1836. He is the son of Michael and mary Guthri Cullin. His education was begun and completed in the primary schools in Ireland. When he was thirteen years of age his father died, leaving very little for the support of the family, and he was obliged to work on the farm until he was nineteen years of age, when he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary, in which he remained for some time. Owing to his superior conduct and attention to duty he received testimonials from his superior officers and left the force with an excellent character. At the age of twenty-three he went to the United States and worked on a farm in Massachusetts. He was, at this time, extremely attached to the temperance cause, and is still temperate in all his habits, to which his success largely due. In 1955 he went to Munson, in the State of Massachusetts, and, after a short sojourn there, left with the intention of going to the Southern States, and, in doing so, came by way of Montreal, where he stopped to visit his brother, who persuaded him to remain in that city and join the police force, which he did. He was appoitned to look after the Sunday Liquor Law, and was the first to put it in force in the city. He called upon the saloons to obey the law, had a good many of them fined, and called the attention of the Government to the number of unlicensed places in Montreal, and a law was passed that the Recorder of the city could use his jurisdiction in having those cases tried before him, when formerly they were tried by the Police Magistrate. In 1865 he was appointed detective, and in 1881 chief detective. He has had under his direction the celebrated murder case of the Honorable Thomas D'Arcy McGee. There is probably no man in the Dominion of Canada to-day better adapted to this particular profession than is this widely-known Montreal detective. In religion he is a Roman Catholic.

Notes:
1. Cullin, is a common misspelling of Cullinan, and this is common throughout this family's recorded past, including newspapers and church records.
2. Michael Cullinan (c1832-1901).

Source:
Men of Canada by Success or Example, The Canadian Album (©1893 Bradley, Garretson Col: Brantford, Ontario).