Hi Linda,
Hope you don't mind me adding to your post. Did you find your John Mullen senior?
I am also searching for a John Mullen who was born in Ireland on 1/11/1879 but arrived in Bellshill shortly after that. The area is Lanarkshire and his father James Mullen was a coalminer. The problem is that both parents had died by the time John was 15 (1895) and I have been unable to track him after that.
I have a lot of detail about his parents, James and Mary McConville and his siblings Sarah, Mary (my great grandmother), Catherine and William. Does any of this sound familliar or am I clutching at straws?
Frances