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John Mitchel

John Mitchel (Irish: Seán Uí Mistéil; b.November 3, 1815 – d. March 20, 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Dungiven, County Londonderry ^[1]he became a leading Member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation. He 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. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... John Mitchell, Irish Nationalist From http://www. ... John Mitchell, Irish Nationalist From http://www. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... April 5-12: Mount Tambora explodes, changing climate. ... March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in leap years). ... 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Irish nationalism refers to political movements that desire greater autonomy or the independence of Ireland from Great Britain. ... Dungiven (Irish: Dún Geimhín; meaning Givens fort) is a large village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on the main Belfast to Derry road. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Derry Area: 2,074 km² Population (est. ... Young Ireland was an Irish nationalist revolutionary movement, active in the mid-nineteenth century. ... The Irish Confederation was an Irish nationalist independence movement, established on January 13, 1847 by members of the Young Ireland movement who had seceded from the Repeal Association. ... // Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... // The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA is built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Irish nationalism refers to political movements that desire greater autonomy or the independence of Ireland from Great Britain. ...

Early life

At the age of four, the John was sent to a classical school, run by an old minister named Moor, nicknamed “Gospel Moor” by the students.^{[2][citation needed]} He read books from a very early age.^{[3][citation needed]} When a little over five years old, he was introduced into the Latin grammar by his teacher and made very quick progress for a child of his age.^{[4][citation needed]}

When he was eight, the family had moved to Newry, where he attended a school run by Mr. McNeil. Mitchel did not get on with McNeil, who considered the topics that Mitchel was reading (Caesar) was too advanced for him.^[5] John was discouraged by this and began to pay less attention, in class, where McNeil pronounced him stupid. He was taken out of the school, and sent to a classical school, kept by a Dr. Henderson. The encouragement and support of Dr. Henderson laid the foundations of his classical scholarship which was to play such a major part in his later life.^{[6][citation needed]} Mitchel also met his life-long friend, John Martin, at the school, whom was to experience and share in much of his later career. John remained with Dr. Henderson until he was sixteen, and from here went to college. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

Mitchel went on to study law at 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. Trinity College, Dublin, corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, and is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ... A solicitor is a type of lawyer in many common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Australia New Zealand and Canada, but not the United States (in the United States the word has a quite different meaning—see below). ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Downpatrick Area: 2,448 km² Population (est. ... The Nation was an Irish nationalist newspaper, published in the 19th century, co-founded by Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy, its first editor. ...

Deportation and the Jail Journal

Mitchel's radicalism was too extreme for the newspaper^{[citation needed]} and led to the prosecution of the paper's editor, Charles Gavan Duffy, for seditious libel, of which the paper was cleared.^[7].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 Famine to reduce the population (which the British Government considered to have a surplus^{[citation needed]}) 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 to the prison of Ireland Island, Bermuda, and then to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. It was during this journey he wrote his Jail Journal, in which he expressed his hatred of British policy in Ireland and advocated a more radical brand of nationalism. Charles Gavan Duffy Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KBE, KCMG (12 April 1816 - 9 February 1903) Irish nationalist and Australian colonial politician, was the 8th Premier of Victoria and one of the most colourful figures in Victorian political history. ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the newspaper. ... Starvation during the famine The Irish Potato Famine, also called The Great Famine or The Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór), is the name given to a famine which struck Ireland between 1846 and 1849. ... Sedition is a term of law to refer to covert conduct such as speech and organization that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. ... Ireland Island is the northwesternmost island in the chain which comprises Bermuda. ... Van Diemens Land was the original name used by Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. ...

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.^{[citation needed]} The paper however became controversial for its defence of slavery by highlighting the hypocrisy of the abolitionists in the debate. Mitchel, a critic of international capitalism, which he blamed for both the pending Civil war and the Great Hunger.^{[citation needed]} 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. NY redirects here. ... Distribution of Irish Americans according to the 2000 Census Irish Americans are residents of the United States who acknowledge Irish ancestry and self-identify with the term. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Starvation during the famine The Irish Potato Famine, also called The Great Famine or The Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór), is the name given to a famine which struck Ireland between 1846 and 1849. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Jefferson Davis (June 3, 1808 - December 6, 1889) was an American statesman who was President of the Confederate States of America, as well as a Congress man for Kentucky, for its entire history from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. ...

With the ending of the war and the victory for the Union side in the American Civil War, Mitchel returned his focus to the issue of Ireland. 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. Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Irish nationality law is the law of the Republic of Ireland governing citizenship. ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

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. A by-election or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office when the incumbent has died or resigned. ... A former UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning two Members of Parliament. ...

Mitchel remains a figure in Irish history for his involvement in radical nationalism, 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 less well known "The Life of Hugh O'Neill.

He was described by Charles Gavin Duffy as "a trumpet to awake the slothful to the call of duty; and the Irish people".^[8]

Miscellaneous

Mitchell County, Iowa, is named in his honor. Mitchell County is a county located in the state of Iowa. ...

Quotes

"Anything Butt" - Mitchel's putdown of Isaac Butt in 1874. Isaac Butt (September 6, 1813 - May 5, 1879) was the founder and first leader of a number of parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1874 the Home Rule League, subsequently known as the Irish Parliamentary Party. ...

Books By John Mitchel

• An Apology for the British Government in Ireland, John Mitchel, O Donoghue & Company. 1905
• Jail Journal, John Mitchel, M.H. Gill &Sons, LTD 1914
• Jail Journal: with continuation in New York & Paris, John Mitchel, M.H. Gill & Son, Ltd
• The Crusade of the Period, John Mitchel, Lynch, Cole & Meehan 1873
• Last Conquest Of Ireland (Perhaps), John Mitchel, Lynch, Cole & Meehan 1873
• History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time, John Mitchel, Cameron & Ferguson
• History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time (2 Vol),John Mitchel,James Duffy 1869
• Life of Hugh O'Neil John Mitchel P.M. Haverty 1868
• John Mitchel, The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps) (Glasgow, 1876 - reprinted UNiversity College Dublin Press, 2005) ISBN I-905558-36-4

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, Jail Journal (Dublin, M.H. Gill, 1913)
• Life of John Martin, P. A. Sillard, James Duffy & Co., Ltd 1901
• Life of John Mitchel, P. A. Sillard, James Duffy and Co., Ltd 1908
• John Mitchel, P. S. O'Hegarty, Maunsel & Company, Ltd 1917
• Irish Mitchel, Seamus MacCall, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd 1938
• John Mitchel First Felon for Ireland, Edited By Brian O'Higgins, Brian O'Higgins 1947
• John Mitchel Noted Irish Lives, Louis J. Walsh, The Talbot Press Ltd 1934
• John Mitchel, A Cause Too Many, Aidan Hegarty, Camlane Press

References

1. ^ John Mitchel, P. S. O'Hegarty,Maunsel & Company, Ltd 1917. Pg 1.
2. ^ William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
3. ^ William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
4. ^ William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
5. ^ William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
6. ^ William Dillon, The life of John Mitchel (London, 1888) 2 Vols.
7. ^ Young Ireland and 1848, Dennis Gwynn,Cork University Press,1949 Pg 57-58.
8. ^ P.A. Sillard's The Life of John Mitchel Pg.ix introduction