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John Mitchel

John Mitchel (November 3, 1815 – March 20, 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist, and also became a public voice for the Southern American viewpoint in the United States in the 1850s and 1860s before ending up elected to the British House of Commons, only to be disqualified because he was a convicted felon. His Jail Journal is one of Irish nationalism's most famous texts.

Early Life

Mitchel was born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, a son of John Mitchel, a radical Presbyterian minister with strong Unitarian sympathies, and his wife Mary Haslet. Mitchel was educated in Newry and Trinity College, Dublin. After a period as a bank clerk he began working as a solicitor in Banbridge in County Down in 1840. In 1845 he abandoned law to join the staff of the nationalist newspaper The Nation.

Deportation and the Jail Journal

Mitchel's radicalism was too extreme for the newspaper and led to the prosecution of the paper's editor, Charles Gavan Duffy, for seditious libel, of which the paper was cleared. In 1848 Mitchel set up his own newspaper, the United Irishman, where he called for resistance against British rule in Ireland, through the non-payment of rents, and preventing the export of food from the country and was the most vocal in highlighting how the British in his opinion, deliberately exasperated and mismanaged the Irish Potato Famineto reduce the population (which the British Government considered to have a "surplus") to more manageable levels.. Mitchel's calls led to a charge of sedition, but this charged was later dropped. He was convicted under a new law purposefully enacted of Treasury Felony Act and sentenced to 14 years transportation. He was transported, first to the prison hulks of Ireland Island, Bermuda, and then to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. It was during this journey he wrote his famed Jail Journal, in which he expressed his hatred of Britishpolicy in Ireland and his more radical brand of nationalism.

Pro-Southern campaigner in the United States

Mitchel escaped from the colony in 1853 and established the radical Irish nationalist newspaper The Citizen in New York, as an expression of radical Irish-American anti-British opinion. The paper however became controversial for its hypothetical defence of slavery. Mitchel, a critic of international capitalism, which he blamed for both the pending Civil war and the Great Hunger. Mitchel resigned from the paper and toured as a spokesman for the south, founding a new paper, the Southern Citizen as a spokesperson for the cause in the south, and was the first to point out that slavery and abolition were not the cause of the conflict but simply used as a pretence . He lost two of his sons to the war, with another badly wounded. Mitchel fell out with Jefferson Davis, who he regarded as too moderate. Mitchel ended up back in prison after the civil war for a short time, but was released with the assistance of the Fenian's in 1865.

With the ending of the war and the victory for the Union side in the American Civil War, Mitchel returned to agitation on the issue of Ireland, which he had never ceased to do. He founded his third American newspaper, the Irish Citizen but the paper failed to attract readers and folded in 1872. Mitchel worked for a time in Paris as finical agent for the Fenian’s before again returning to the States.

Elected an MP

Mitchel returned to Ireland where in 1875 he was elected in a by-election to be an MP in the British parliament representing the Tipperary constituency. However his election was invalidated on the grounds that he was a convicted felon. He contested the seat again in the resulting by-election, again being elected, this time with an increased vote. However his sudden death avoided a constitutional crisis, with his opponent being returned unopposed in the third by-election.

Mitchel remains a famed figure in Irish history for his involvement in radical nationalist agitation, and in particular for writings such as 'Jail Journal, "The Last Conquest Of Ireland (Perhaps)," "The History of Ireland," "An Apology for the British Government in Ireland," and the little known "The Life of Hugh O'Neill. His role in defending slavery however remains the most common thyme to be used against his character, in deference to his activities in Ireland.

Honors

Mitchell County, Iowa, is named in his honor.

Quotes

"Anything Butt" - Mitchel's putdown of Isaac Butt in 1874.

Additional reading

• William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
• James F. Donnelly Jr, 'The Great Famine: Its interpreters old and new', History Ireland 1, No.3. (Autumn 1993)
• Eugene Genovese, The World the Slaveholders Made (New York, 1969)
• W.J. McCormack (ed) The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture (Blackwell) ISBN 0-631-22817-9
• John Mitchel, The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps) (Glasgow, 1876 - reprinted UNiversity College Dublin Press, 2005) ISBN I-905558-36-4
• John Mitchel, Jail Journal (Dublin, M.H. Gill, 1913)