John Mitchel and his Legacy

Abstract John Mitchel was the most influential late nineteenth-century Irish nationalist. He popularized the concept that the Irish famine was deliberate English genocide. In very poor health, he fought and won a parliamentary seat in Tipperary in 1885; all ambitious young nationalists like Parnell and notably Dillon, rallied around him despite Mitchel’s strong support for slavery. Mitchel’s last campaign encouraged young politicians to believe that there was—despite some appearances—a latent popular support for militant nationalist objectives if only it could be mobilized. John Mitchel delivered a slashing blow to the forces of conservatism in Irish politics. But it also weakened old-style Fenian militarism with a linked belief in physical force as the only means of liberating Ireland. Mitchel believed, above all, that advanced nationalists should go into electoral politics.