John Mitchel (1815-1875) stands among the most resolute and unyielding figures in the history of Irish Republicanism. A leading voice of the Young Ireland movement, he broke decisively with all compromise and declared that Ireland’s freedom would not be granted, but must be taken. Through his writings in The Nation and later in The United Irishman, he called openly for national resistance and the overthrow of foreign rule. For this he was arrested and transported, enduring exile rather than renouncing his principles. In all circumstances he remained steadfast, refusing to temper his beliefs to suit the demands of power or opinion. In his final years, he returned to Ireland and was elected as an abstentionist MP by the people of Tipperary, who affirmed his place as their chosen representative despite the opposition of the British political class. In his life, his writings and his unbroken defiance, Mitchel embodied a Republicanism that would accept no compromise and whose purpose was nothing less than the full and final liberation of Ireland.
Writings of John Mitchel
Collected Mitchel by cartlann.org
Books
The Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill, Prince of Ulster (1845)
Jail Journal (1854)
The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1858)
Ireland, France and Prussia (1866-71)
The Crusade of the Period (1873)
Early Letters
Letters of John Mitchel (1834-1845)
Letter from John Mitchel to James Fintan Lalor (4th January 1848)
Letter To Charles Gavan Duffy (7th January 1848)
The Nation
The Sorrows of an Irish Landlord (18th February 1843)
The Anti-Irish Catholics (27th May 1843)
The English Government and the Irish Presbyterians (22nd July 1843)
The People’s Food (25th October 1845)
The Detectives (8th November 1845)
Threats of Coercion (22nd November 1845)
The Oregon - Ireland (6th December 1845)
Review of Carlyle’s “Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches” (10th January 1846)
Famine (14th February 1846)
Political Economy for Ireland (26th February 1846)
“English Rule.” (6th March 1846)
Beware of the Whigs (30th May 1846)
Speech on the Peace Resolutions (29th July 1846)
Next Year’s Famine (13th March 1847)
Preface to ‘Irish Political Economy’ (15th March 1847)
The Famine Year (19th June 1847)
To the Surplus Population of Ireland (21st August 1847)
More Alms for the “Destitute Irish” (16th October 1847)
Speech to the Irish Confederation, 2nd February 1848 (2nd February 1848)
Speech to the Irish Confederation, 4th February 1848 (4th February 1848)
Letter to the Irish Confederation (7th February 1848)
United Irishman
Prospectus of the United Irishman (12th February 1848)
Letter to Lord Clarendon (12th February 1848)
The Enemy’s Parliament: Farmers Beware! (12th February 1848)
The Pope, The Clergy, and The Flock (12th February 1848)
“Sanatory Reform!” (19th February 1848)
For Land and Life! (19th February 1848)
Waterford Election—Mr. Meagher (19th February 1848)
To The Small Farmers of Ireland (26th February 1848 & 4th March 1848)
To Lord Clarendon, Her Majesty’s Ameliorator-General and General Developer of Ireland (11th March 1848)
John Mitchel’s Petition to the Houses of Parliament (c. March 1848)
To Lord Clarendon, Her Majesty’s Executioner-General and General Butcher of Ireland (18th March 1848)
Ireland and the Republic (20th March 1848)
To Earl of Clarendon, Her Majesty’s Executioner-General and General Butcher of Ireland (II) (24th March 1848)
The Landlord Thugs (1st April 1848)
Speech to the Irish Confederation, 5th April 1848 (5th April 1848)
‘French Aid’—Clap-Trap (8th April 1848)
On the Office and Duty of Jurors Trying ‘Political Offences’ in Ireland (8th April 1848)
To Earl of Clarendon, Her Majesty’s Detective-General, High Commissioner of Spies, and General Suborner of Ireland (8th April 1848)
To the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, Prime Minister of the Queen of England (15th April 1848)
The United Irishman Gagged (29th April 1848)
Address to the People of Limerick, 30 April 1848 (30th April 1848)
To Mr. Sergeant Howley, Assistant-Barrister for Tipperary (13th May 1848)
An Ulsterman for Ireland (22nd April - 20th May 1848)
Additional Speeches and a Letter from 1848-1853
Address to the Citizens of Dublin (22nd March 1848)
Speech From the Dock (26th May 1848)
To the Secretary of the St. Patrick’s Confederate Club (5th June 1848)
Letter to William Smith O’Brien, October 6, 1852 (6th October 1852)
The Position and Duties of European Refugees in America (28th December 1853)
The Citizen
Prospectus of the Citizen (7th January 1854)
Mr. Haughton to Mr. Meagher (14th January 1854)
To the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. (28th January 1854)
England’s Difficulty (25th March 1854)
Letter to the Survivors of the Irish in Ireland Under Forty Years of Age (1st April 1854)
An Eccentric Know-Nothing: Letter to Orestes A. Brownson, LL.D. (15th July 1854)
Additional Works from America and Paris
Progress in the Nineteenth Century (28th June 1854)
Letter to Father John Kenyon (1857)
Letter to John Blake Dillon (24th October 1860)
What the American War is For (28th August 1861)
Letter to the Nation (14th February 1863)
Letter to Hon. Benjamin Wood (13th June 1865)
Fenians (1st July 1865)
Letter to Colonel Roberts and John Savage (11th January 1868)
Letters on Fenianism (22nd February - 25th April 1868)
On the Internationale (13th April 1872)
John Mitchel on “Gaelic Ireland” (Undated, likely written during his time in North America)
The Tipperary Campaign
John Mitchel’s Election Manifesto (February 1875)
Letter to the New York Herald (February 1875)
John Mitchel’s Speech to the Electors of Tipperary (16th February 1875)
Final Letter to the People of Tipperary (17th March 1875)