John Mitchel (1815-1875)


Life
b. 3 Nov. 1815, in Dungiven, Co. Derry, born in the manse, being the son of Presbyterian minister who became Unitarian; ed. Derry, and afterwards at Dromolane House, Newry, on his father accepting post as Dissenting minister in that town [c.1823]; and TCD, from 1830; grad. LLB, 1834; entered law apprenticeship in Newry; eloped with 16-year old Jenny Verner, dg. of Captain Verner and a great beauty; brought back to Newry by police while chastely awaiting marriage papers in Chester; married Jenny at Drumcree Parish Church, Armagh, 1837; qualified as solicitor, 1840; practised law in Banbridge, Co. Down; met Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy in Dublin, 1842; co-opted to Repeal Association by Duffy, 1843; joined Young Ireland; taken on as editor of The Nation by Duffy at the death of Davis, moving to Dublin with his family and editing the paper during 1845-47;
 
wrote Life and Times of Hugh O’Neill (Dublin 1845) - issued with Thomas MacNevin, The Confiscation of Ulster (1846); contrib. article to the Nation detailing tactics for ambushing troops to be promulgated by Repeal wardens, eliciting a protest from O’Connell; espoused James Fintan Lalor’s doctrine of rent-resistance and armed rebellion during 1845-49 Famine; withdrew from the Repeal Movement, with Devin Reilly, and formed the Irish Confederation, acting as the leading member, 1846; brought with him the poet James Clarence Mangan Mangan and the patriotic priest Fr. John Kenyon; resigned editorship of The Nation, Dec. 1847; founded the United Irishman, in the belief that legal and constitutional agitation in Ireland is a delusion; openly avowed ‘the holy hatred of English rule’;
 
professed at an Irish Confederation debate of Feb. 1848 that ‘there are worse things going on around us than bloodshed’, that ‘every man (except a born slave, who aspires only to get slaves and die a slave) ought to have arms and to promote the use of them’; and that ‘no good can come from an English parliament’, advised on the construction of barricades; infamously portrayed in ‘The British Lion and the Irish Monkey’, in Punch, 1848; United Irishman suppressed under new Felony-Treason Act and Mitchel arrested, 13 May, 1848; living at at 8 Ontario Tce., Charlemont Bridge, Dublin, prior to his arrest; held in Newgate Prison for a fortnight; tried before Baron Lefroy, Jeremiah Dunne (Lord Mayor of Dublin) and Judge Moore, to a packed jury; defended with great tact by Robert Holmes ‘father’ of the N. E. Circuit, and br.-in-law of Robert Emmet - with Samuel Ferguson as a member of his team - but found guilty and convicted, 26 May 1848;
 
sentenced to transportation by Chief Baron Lefroy [Le Froy], and 14 years labour in Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania]; removed from Dublin in chains [‘I walked down the steps; and amidst all that multitude the clanking of my chains was the loudest sound’ - Jail Journal]; sent to Cove [Cobh] on board HMS Shearwater, where he wrote the first entry of Jail Journal (‘After all, for what has this sacrifice been made?’); occupied an an officer’s cabin in view of his social status; at Cobh he encountered Edward Walsh, then school-teacher on Spike Island;
 
transferred to prison ship and transported to Bermuda (where he almost died) aboard the Scourge, departing Cobh, 1 June 1848; removed to Cape of Good Hope on the Neptune, and held off-shore, for much of two years, since the colonists refused to accept convicts - though offering to except political prisoners; sailed from the Cape to Van Van Diemen’s Land, arriving 7 April 1850; there encountered other Irish political prisoners such as John Martin, T. F. Meagher, O'Doherty and others; shared a cottage at Bothwell prison colony with Martin, later his br.-in-law; joined by Jenny and their children after three years; given parole with Meagher;
 
joined in Tasmania by P. J. Smyth, travelling from America with the purpose of planning his escape, 1853, gave up his parole to the magistrate and rode away with Smyth, 8 June 1853; journeyed to San Francisco; moved to New York, where he worked in journalism; ran several short-lived newspapers; his Jail Journal published serially in his own short-lived Citizen (NY, 14 Jan. to 19 Aug. 1854); strenuously opposed abolition of slavery seeing it as ‘the best state of existence for the Negro’ and an alternative to international capital; dismisses Henry Ward Beecher’s criticism of his position on slavery as ‘abolitionist cant’; founded the Southern Citizen, at Knoxville; and edited Richmond Examiner during Civil War;
 
engaged in controversy with Archbishop John Joseph Hughes and others, his reactionary views being ‘the subject of much surprise and general rebuke’; visited Virginia and New Orleans; moved to Richmond at outbreak of war and ed. the Irish Citizen, New York, 1867-72 [vide Enquirer or Examiner, ODNB]; farmed in Tennessee, 1855, but also lived by lecturing; issued ‘An Apology for the British Government in Ireland’ serially in 1858, revised as The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (Dublin 1861) and substantially rewritten twice after that;
 
championed Southern States and sent three sons to fight in the Civil War; lost the eldest, Capt. John C. Mitchel (commem. in Charleston), and also the youngest Willy, at Gettysburg (at John Fort Sumner); the third, James, lost an arm but survived; edited The Enquirer, a semi-official organ of President Jefferson Davis; moved to New York after the war and ed. New York Daily News, 1864-65; arrested in the office of the Daily News because of his articles defending the South; imprisoned nearly five months by Union authorities at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, along with Jefferson Davis and Senator Clay;
 
his release secured by friends on condition that he left America; travelled to Paris and acted as financial agent for Fenians, 1865-66; renewed publ. of Irish Citizen; denounced Fenians and quarrelled with James Stephens; visited Ireland in 1875, and greeted as a hero by nationalists there and received a large sum of money in testimony of respect; returned to America, but was summoned back when the Tipperary seat became vacant; found on arrival in Cork, 17 Feb. 1875, he discovered that he been elected MP for Co. Tipperary; declared ineligible as undischarged felon, but re-elected in March, 1875; died at home of John Martin during victory celebrations, 20 March - ight days after re-election, then living in Newry; unaccompanied by his wife, who lived on to 1899 (d. 31 Dec.; bur. Wooodlawn, Bronx);
 
Mitchel is author of the phrase, ‘The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine’ and a ‘prayer’ for war (‘Send war in our time, O Lord!’) which is echoed in Yeats’s “Under Ben Bulben”; there is a death mask by Thomas Farrell (NGI); a dg., Henrietta, become a Catholic and a nun in Paris, and died young, being buried in the Convent of the Sacred Heart; a grandson became an anti-Tammany mayor of New York; some Mitchel letters are held in the Public Records Office, Belfast; Mitchel's Jail Journal is one of the earliest texts to use the terms ‘West-briton’ and ‘Castle-Catholic’ - both of which reflect his keen suspicion of the middle-class and aristocratic Catholics in post-Emancipation Ireland. CAB ODNB JMC DIB DIW DIL / 2 OCEL MKA RAF OCIL
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Note: The Tables of Contents of Jail Journal (1854) is available here; the Introduction (viz., “Introductory”) is now being edited - as attached.


Works
  • Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill, Prince of Ulster (Dublin: Duffy 1846, 1862), 252pp. [ded. to Thomas Davis], xii, [13]-252pp.; Do. [another edn.] (Dublin: Duffy 1874), 246pp. [includes preface to American edition pp. xii-xx] & Do. [London: Edmund Burke & Co. 1846) [details].
  • Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons, by John Mitchel, Editor of The United Irishman (NY: Office of the Citizen 1854), 370pp. [& other edns. see details].
  • Irish Political Economy (Dublin 1847), incl. 100 of Berkeley’s ‘Queries’, with annotations. pp.26-39; History of Ireland Since the Treaty of Limerick (Glasgow, London, and Dublin: Duffy 1868) [var. 1869 FDA].
  • The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (Dublin: The Irishman Office 1861); Do. [another edn.] (Glasgow: R T. Washbourne n.d.; Do., [another edn.] (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1861), and Do., ed. Patrick Maume [rep. edn.] (UCD Press 2005), 249pp. [see contents].
  • An Ulsterman for Ireland, being the letters to the Protestant farmers, labourers, and artisans of the North of Ireland, with a foreword by Eoin MacNeill (Candle Press 1917).
  • An Apology for the British Government in Ireland (Gill 1920) [cf. infra].
Miscellaneous
  • Ed., Poems by James Clarence Mangan, with an introduction by John Mitchel (NY: Haverty 1859; rep. NY 1870]).
  • Ed., Poems of Thomas Davis (1868).
Translation

Seán Mhisteil, Iris Leabhar Priosuin [Jail Journal], trans. Eoghan Ó Neachtain, 2 vols. (1st edn. 1910).

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Bibliographical details
The Life and Times / of / AODH O’NEILL, / Prince of Ulster; / Called by the English / Hugh, Earl of Tyrone. / with some account of his predecessors, / Con, Shane, and Tirlough. / By John Mitchel / Cu mam croinic do cíoinn Neill / Come let us make a chronicle for the O’Neills / Dublin: James Duffy & Sons 15 Wellington Quay, and 1 Paternoster Row, London. [verso:] printed by Edmund Burke & Co., 61 & 62 Great Strand St., Dublin. To the Memory of my Dear Friend, Thomas Davis, with deep Reverence I inscribe This Book. John Mitchel, Banbridge Sept. 22, 1845. (See further under Quotations, infra.) Note 1845 Dublin edn. printed by stereotyped and printed by T. Coldwell; 1862 Dublin edn. printed by Pattison Jolly.

Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons, commenced on board the “Shearwater” steamer, in Dublin bay, continued at Spike island - on board the “Scourge” war steamer - on board the “Dromedary” hulk, Bermuda - on aboard the “Neptune” convict ship - at Pernambuco - at the cape of Good Hope (during the anti-convict rebellion) - at Van Diemen’s land - at Sydney - at Tahiti - at San Francisco - at Greytown - and concluding at No. 3 pier, North river, New York. With an introductory narrative of transactions in Ireland. / By John Mitchel, Editor of The United Irishman (NY: Published at the Office of the Citizen, No. 8 Spruce Street 1854), 370pp. T.p. verso: Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by / JOHN MITCHEL, / in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern / District of New York [W. H. Tinson, printer and stereotyper, 34 Bookman Street]. (See copies available at Google Books - online.)

Jail Journal - Original edition with a continuation of the journal in New York and Paris, with a preface by Arthur Griffith [‘reprint from The Citizen, Jan. 14th 1854 to August 19th 1854’] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son; T. Fisher Unwin 1913), xvi, 459pp., 8° [see details];

1854 Edition in screen format
at Google Books
1913 Edition at Internet Archive
(all formats)

Other editions: Jail Journal [another edn.] (London: R. & T. Washbourne 1854), viii, 320pp.; Do. [another edn.] (Dublin: James Corrigan 1864), xxvi, 204pp.; Jail Journal, &c (NY: P. M. Haverty 1868); Do. [another edn.] (Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson [1876]), viii, [9-], 320pp. [styled author’s edition]; Do. [rep. edn.] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd. 1921) [front., pls. & ports], xlvii, 463pp.; Do. [facs. of 1913 Edn.] with a critical introduction by Thomas Flanagan ([Shannon]: IUP 1982), and Do. [rep. edn.] (London: Sphere 1983); Do. [rep. of 1876 Glasgow Edn; [Hibernia: Literature and Nation in Victorian Ireland] (Poole: Woodstock Books 1996), 320pp., 21cm.

Translation: Eoghan Ó Neachtain, trans., [Jail Journal, as] Irisleabhar Príosúin nó chúig bhliadhna i bpríosunaibh no Breataine / iar na chur i nGaedhilge do Eoghan Ó Neachtain, 2 vols. (Baile Átha Cliath, 1910-1911).

[Note: the Internet Archive copy is taken from the the University of Illinois Library and bears a label notice - [type-written:] ‘From the collection of James Collins, Drumcondra, Ireland. Purchased 1918. handwritten:] 941.5 M69j cop.2 [stamped:] Remote Store’

Mitchel"s Jail Journal (1854)

Jail Journal, Commenced on Board the “Shearwater” Steamer, Dublin Bay, Continued at Spike Island - On board the “Scourge War” Steamer - On Board the “Dromedary” Hulk, Bermuda - On Board the “Neptune” Convict Ship - At Perambuco - At the Cape fo Good Hope (During the Anti-convict Rebellion) - A Van Dieman’s Land - At Sidney - At Tahiti - At San Francisco - At Greytown – And Concluding at No. 3 Pier, North River, New York: with an introductory Narrative of Transactions in Ireland, by John Mitchel / prisoner in the hands of the English / original edition with a continuation of the journal in New York and Paris, a Preface, Appendices, and illustrations. [Greek inscription; 1854] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Sons 1913) [Printed and bound in Ireland; 8°.], xlvii. 459pp.

Contents
INTRODUCTORY
Irish History belongs to England — How she tells it! — Another Version — Ireland finally subdued five times — The Penal Laws — Irish Industry, how fostered — Agriculture — Our Forefathers’ Famines — Berkeley — Swift’s “Proposal” for a Relief Measure — Eighteen years — Ireland unprotected and unameliorated — The Volunteers — Project of the Union — Union carried — Famines in 1817 and ’22 — The O’Connell Agitations — “Emancipation” — Extermination — Devon Commission — Campaign against the Celts — Slaughter — The Last Famine — British Law” helps the Famine — The Famine helps British Law — Utter Desolation — Project for Resistance at last — Clubs — Pikes — United Irishman — Lord Clarendon — Birch, Privy Counsellor to the Viceroy — Treason Felony — O’Brien and Meagher — Trial by one’s Country — British Providence works out His wise Dispensations [xxvii ]

—See full text version in RICORSO Library via index, or direct.]

CHAPTER I
Newgate — Travelling Toilet — Drive to the North Wall — “No Disturbance” — Hospitalities of the Shearwater — Capt. Hall of the Dragon — Not Basil Hall — Self-Interrogation — My Fellow-Felons — Spike Island — Edward Walsh — Order for removal to Bermuda The Scourge War Steamer — At Sea. {1}

CHAPTER II
Yachting in the Scourge — “Two Years before the Mast” — Review of an Edinburgh Reviewer — The Nineteenth Century — Bombarding the Moon — Macaulay on Bacon — The New Philosophy — Chasing our own Shadows—Good Night, Nineteenth Century! — Bermuda — “Ireland Island”. {19}

CHAPTER III
An English Steamer — The Morning Post — Edmund Burke Roche — The “Irish Felon” — Handed over to a Man in Blue — Receipt taken — Hospitalities of the Dromedary — Genesis and Growth of the Bermudas — Description of my cell — Precautions against Mutiny — Removed to an Hospital-ship for ten days — Back again — The Devil’s Acre, or Cemetery of Cut-throats — Sympathy in New York — Precautions at Bermuda against an American Squadron — Prison Biography — Suicide, pro and contra — The 42nd Highlanders — Discipline — Letter from Ireland {36}

CHAPTER IV
Precautions against my Receipt of News from Ireland — “The last Planks of the Constitution” — Contraband Intelligence — English Chartists Imprisoned — Meagher Arrested — Martin, Williams and O’Doherty committed “for Felony” — Warrant out against O’Brien — “Government” will have to pack Juries — Duties of Juries in Ireland — Method of Rigmarole — “Books” — Feeding like the Laplanders or the Ducks of Pontus — Necessity of Work — Autobiographies — Gifford, Elwood and Crichton — Gibbon, Evelyn, and Rosseau — Sulky Prisoners — Cut-throats attending Divine Service — More Contraband Intelligence — John Martin transported — Habeas Corpus Act suspended — Gaols full — Dumeis — Attempted Insurrection in Tipperary — Failure — Flight — Famine — Clonmel Juries. {55}

CHAPTER V
London paper falls from Heaven — O’Brien, Meagher, MacManus, O’Donoghue, Sentenced to Death — Kindness of the Spirit of the Age — General Estimate of the Results of this Irish Movement — O’Connell’s Son and the Catholics — Letter from New York — The French Republic and the Carthaginian Newspapers — Herr Doppelganger Expostulates with the Ego — Republicanism in the Abstract — In the Concrete — France marches in the Van — Doppelganger severely handled in Argument — Doppelganger stands out — The Credit-funds, Peace and Progress — Courage, Jacobins! — The Ego leaves Herr Doppelganger not a leg to stand upon — “Arterial Drainage” {74}

CHAPTER VI
Escape of Three Cut-throats — Hot pursuit — Capture — Solemn mang- ling of the Cut-throats — Six Months in Bermuda — Sickness — More Bad Books — Life of Walter Scott — of Cowper — Fall back on Rabelais — Shakespeare for ever! — Sir Alexander Burnes — His Journey up the Indus — Takes Soundings for British War Steamers — Surveys Hyderabad with a View to British Burglary — Examines the Capacities of Lahore for British Cotton and’ Christianity — Takes the Measure of the Koh-i-noor in the interests of Civilisation — Band of the 42nd — Captain Alexander’s Book — Sickness — Medical Superintendent tells me I am going to die soon — Note to the Governor of Bermuda {94}

CHAPTER VII
The “First Mate” — Goethe never in the Galleys — Prospect of a Ship for the Cape of Good Hope — “Trial” and Doom of O’Doherty — The Catholic Clergy — Christmas on board the Dromedary — News of Election of Louis Napoleon for President — Deadly Sickness, and Living against Time — Literary Deposit, in Six Strata — Uses of Bad Books — Metaphysics — Bermuda a School of Reformation — Irish Prisoners graduate for the Gallows — Criminal Jurisprudence — A Plea for the Drop — Prayer for the Soul of Walter Scott — Order to despatch me to the Cape — A “Spirit of Disaffection” in Ireland still — Sad! {113}

CHAPTER VIII
Ten Months’ Bondage — Arrival of the Neptune, Bound for the Cape — Perils of British Rule in Ireland — Trial of the Editor of the Nation — Editor a Recreant — Removal to the Hospital Ship again — Reflections unusually Pious — News from Europe and Asia — Lord Gough in the Punjab — Imaginary Programme of European Movements — Preparing for Voyage to Africa — Phenomena of Memory — Innocence of Childhood — The Pen of Rigmarole — The Scourge again — British Public Opinion — Parliamentary Falsehoods by Admiral Dundas and Lord Lansdowne — At Sea once more — Bright Prospects — O’Connell, a Portrait — Conversation with “Surgeon-Superintendent”. {128}

CHAPTER IX
An American Brig — Stray copy of the Daily News — Memorial on behalf of Mr. Duffy — The Failure at Ballingarry — Arms Bills — Use of Riots — French Army besieging Rome — “Order” — Hungary holds her Ground — Review of my Shipmates — Becalmed for many Weeks — Sickness — Short of Water — The Dead to the Sharks — Tropic Seas — Danger of Mutiny — The Parson Frightened — Pernambuco — Oranges — Slaves — No “Facts” in my Journal — Humboldt’s Howling Monkeys — Cyanometer — English Papers at Pernambuco — Six Irish Rebels on their Way to Van Diemen’s Land — Two American Skippers — Prince Louis Napo- leon on this Coast — Home Secretary thinks me Dead — Brazilians “Lazy Foreign Lubbers”. {144}

CHAPTER X
Slaves and Slave-trade in Brazil — Benevolent Pirates — Elections in Brazil — Vanish South America — Ocean Visions — Lessons from Sea-Pigeons — British Convict System — The Railway Swindler — The Railway King — Habits of British Soldiers — Promotion to the Hulks — Night at Sea — The Irish Prisoners — Dismal Songs — The Cape of Good Hope — Africa, Beware! — Africa brings forth Aliquid Novi. {159}

CHAPTER XI
Ferment at the Cape — British Governor under Duress — “Anti-Convict Association” — News of O’Brien and the “Traitors” — Neptune at Anchor — Simon’s Bay — Cape Heaths and Geranium — Anti-Convict Council of War — Simultaneous Meetings — Note from the Governor — Anti-Convict Pledge — Starvation — Dr. Dees falls Sick — Excitement Increases — Cape Newspapers — The Bandieten — The 18th of August in Zwartland — The Boers — Starvation — Fishing to support Existence — Non-intercourse — Steward of the Neptune — Our Skipper Ashore — People will hold no Intercourse — Indignation of the Men-of- War’s Men — Commodore rides on a Foray. {175}

CHAPTER XII
“Committee of Vigilance” — Business at a stand in Capetown — The Moderates and Immoderates — Dr. Dees Dead — A Rebel Bishop — Violent Ferment in the Interior — -Advantage of Inhabiting a Sphaeroid — Rage of the Colonists — Resolution to shut Shops — Mr. Ebden — Fairbairn, able Editor — Mynheer Smuts — Chances of a Revolt — Cape Wines — Traitors Excommunicated — Benjamin Norden — Captain Stanford feeds Sir Harry — The Neptune “Instructor” would a-shopping go — No Intercourse — Solemn Fast — Secretary Montague — The Coolies now Hungry — Mobs — Suggestion for Sir Harry — Wives or reputed Wives. {188}

CHAPTER XIII
News from Europe — Hungary still holds her Ground — “Opinion stronger than Arms” — Dublin Nation, New Series — Queen in Ireland — Tim O’Brien — Young Ireland nowhere — Her Majesty in a green silk visite” — Does not visit Skibbereen — Thomas Carlyle in Ireland — Despatch from England — Hungary is down — Kossuth and Bem — Hungary Immortal — England in Asia — England in Europe — The “Future of America” — Dublin Nation again — The Irishman — Government Massacre in Ireland — A Slave-ship — The Southern Hemisphere — Confusion of Feasts and Fasts — The Anti-Convict Association — Letter of W. P. Laubscher — Letter of Hendrick Morkel. {201}

CHAPTER XIV
No Despatch — “Wearing the Ring of our Anchor” — An Alarm — Victor of Aliwal shall not have a Statue — Curious Law-suit — Plaintiffs and Defendants Repudiate the Judges — News of the “Felons” in Van Diemen’s Land — Despatch at Last — Conditional Pardon to all on Board — “Except Prisoner Mitchel” — Pleasing Anticipations — English Newspapers — Ireland Tranquil — Neptune gets ready for Sea — Rejoicings — Illuminations — Good-night to Africa — Van Diemen’s Land Appears — D’Entre- casteaux’ Channel — Hobart Town — Official Documents — Ticket-of-Leave — Parole — The Irish Exile, Newspaper — A Smoke with John Martin. {214}

CHAPTER XV
Valley of Bothwell — The Gum-trees — Balsam in the Forest — Rendez- vous at Lake Sorel — Snow-Storm in the Woods — Lake Crescent — Cooper’s Hut — Meeting with Meagher and O’Doherty — Evil Plight of Smith O’Brien— The “Dog’s Head” —Ride to Bothwell. {229}

CHAPTER XVI
Taismanian Hills — A Scottish Glen in Van Diemen’s Land — Letter from Smith O’Brien — Generosity of the “ British Public” — Colonists at Home — Irish Newspapers — Conciliation Hall — Irish Factions in New York — Rebels at Church — Rebels at the Lakes — “Reformatory Discipline” — Write for my Family — Visit from MacManus — The Lakes again — The River Shannon — A Rhapsody of Rivers — Clarence Mangan — Sample of Tasmanian Population — Hiatus in the Journal — Go to Hobart Town to receive my Wife {239}

CHAPTER XVII
Ride to Brown’s River — Gardens — Flowers of Van Diemen’s Land — Kindly Climate — Breeds of Dogs and Horses — Mea and Women — A Beauty — St. Kevin — Romantic residence for Burglars — My Wife arrives at Adelaide — Expected at Launceston — I go to Launceston — Imprisonment there for 24 hours — Mr. Gunn — Letter to the Colonial Times — Arrival of my Wife in Hobart Town — Meeting at Greenponds — Back to Bothwell. {251}

CHAPTER XVIII
Nant Cottage-Ride to Avoca — Visit to Mr. O’Brien — Vigour of Sir W. Denison — “Clemency” of Government — Van Diemen’s Land Stage-coaches — Tasmania a Bastard England — Van Die- men’s Land Election — Anti-Transportation — The Australasian League — Balfe — Policy of the Gaoler Party — Valley of Avoca — Meeting with O’Brien — A Day spent with Him — The Priests of Tipperary — His Attempt to Escape from Maria Island — Return to Bothwell. {260}

CHAPTER XIX
A Family of Irish Colonists — Mrs. Connell and the Bushrangers — Ride up the Mountains — Meagher and His Dog— Lake Sorel on the Mountain-top — Visit to Meagher’s Cottage— Meagher aids the “League” — Loveliness of Lake Sorel — Tricolour and Fleur-de-lis — Ride to Nant Cottage Young Kangaroo — Hiatus in the Journal — New Year’s Day, 1853 — Stupor and Torpor of our Life — No Thunder and Lightning — KdsSutii In America— Meagher in America. {271}

CHAPTER XX
A Kangaroo-hunt — Dean and Dart — Incredible Sagacity— Three Kangaroos killed — Philosophic Reflections— My Convict Hay-makers — Descent into Hell — Letter from Devin Reilly — Reilly on the Republicans — His interview with Kossuth — An Intellectual Kalmuck — The Celt Lectures the Kalmuck — Reilly and the Democratic Review — His Sorrows — His Wife — Senator Douglas, “Spicy to the Core”. {282}

CHAPTER XXI
Reilly’s Letter — Failure of The PeopleThe Whig Review — A Gascon Irishman — A Scarlet Democrat, Piratic and Honest — Mr. Corry — Irish Affairs — The Priests and Holy Wells — Destiny of Reilly — Haymaker goes to the Diggings — A Stranger Appears amongst us — P. J. Smyth — Meeting with O’Doherty and O’Brien — Smyth in Hobart Town — We visit O’Brien at New Norfolk — Consultations about Escape — To Bothwell — Smyth Reconnoitres the Police Office — His Life in America — Daylight begins to dawn. {294}

CHAPTER XXII
Smyth at Lake Sorel — Goes to Melbourne — I buy the Police Magistrate’s Horse — Letter from Nicaragua — The Waterlily — Plan of Escape — Plan Discovered — Council of War — Arrest of Nicaragua — I visit Hobart Town — Resolution taken — New Plan of Escape — We ride into Bothwell — I revoke my Parole before the Magistrate — Conversation at Police Office — Offer Myself for Arrest — Adieu to Bothwell — A Day’s Hard Riding — A Winter’s Night in the Forest — Job Sims’ Cottage — The Beard Movement — An English Guide — Meet a new Friend on the Mountains — Ride to Westbury — News of Nicaragua — The Police Force on the alert. {304}

CHAPTER XXIII
Nicaragua in Hobart Town — The Don Juan — Rendezvous at Emu Bay — Winter Floods — Emu Bay inaccessible — Express to the Don Juan — Ride to Port Sorel — Savage Country — Home of an Irish Settler — Irish Customs — A Caoine in the Bush — Crossing a Ravine — Another Night in the Woods — -The Sea at Last! — No Don Juan — At Mr. Miller’s. — -Miller an Englishman — Retreat within a Mile of a Police-Barrack — Project to Sail as Miller’s Brother — -Messengers from Launceston — Severe Riding — Boating patty proposed — Night Expedition down the Tamar. {318}

CHAPTER XXIV
Another Disappointment — Flight down the River-Barrett’s Boat — We Miss the Steamer — Back to Launceston — The Chapel House — Father Blake — Meeting with O’Doherty — Father Blake at Hobart Town — Nicaragua — Mr. Davis unhappy — To Sail by the Emma — Farewell to Van Diemen’s Land — Sydney. {330}

CHAPTER XXV
Sydney — My Wife at Wooloomooloo — The Orkney Lass — Take Passage for Honolulu — Dangerous Delays — Sail for the Sandwich Islands — My Fellow-Voyagers — Four Actresses — Tahiti — Papeete — Actresses give a Concert — French Frigate — Le Forte — Ride up the Fowtowa River — Bass’s Pale Ale — Gala at Queen Pomare’s Palace — The Tahitian Girls — The Julia Ann appears — The Stars and Stripes — Off for San Francisco — California — Isthmus of Nicaragua — The San Juan River — Grey town. {340}

CHAPTER XXVI
Greytown — The Pampero — Cuba and the Cubans — -News from Europe — The Czar is up — Refreshment for the Refugees — Kossuth — Mazzini — Ireland — Leaving Greytown — Nicaragua lectures on Central America — Arrive at Cuba — The Moro — Havana — Atares Castle — Cuba and Ireland — Captain-General’s Palace — Dublin Castle — Pass near Bermuda — Doubts — New York at last — Brooklyn. {353}

THE CONTINUATION
The New York Reception — Foundation of “The Citizen” — Mitchel and the Russian Minister — The Know-Nothing Agitation — The Release of Smith O’Brien — The Virginian Address — Irish Organisations in America — The Controversy with Archbishop Hughes — At Stonington — “Anglo-Saxonism” in New York — New York and the Irish Political Prisoners — Retirement from “The Citizen” — Miles Byrne — Marshal MacMahon — Mitchel’s Children — Mitchel and Victor Hugo — Mitchel and Fenianism — Mitchel at the Irish College — Napoleon’s Irish Legion — Mitchel’s Final Departure from France. {367}

APPENDICES

I. The Famine Year — II. The Mitchel-Duffy Controversy — III. The Cape and Mitchel — IV. The Cuban Filibusters — V. Mitchel County, Iowa. {421}

[Indices]
Contemporaries mentioned in Jail Journal. {433}
Mitchel’s Escape: Letter to Mr. “Miller”. {451}
Index {455}

List of Illustrations [pp.xxv-vi]

John Mitchel [frontispiece]; John Mitchel - A sketch in May, 1848; Trial of Mitchel; The Bench at the Opening of the Commission which Convicted Mitchel, May, 1848; Newgate Prison; Mitchel’s Dublin Residence in 1848; Fortifications and Dockyard of Ireland Island, Bermuda, in 1848; View of Ireland Island, Bermuda, 1848, showing Batteries, the Medway, the Coromandel, the Dromedary, Victualling Stores, Keep, and Commissioner’s House; View of Ireland Island, Bermuda, 1848, showing the Naval Hospital, the Tenedos, the Weymouth, the Stone Quarry, Cockburn’s Cut and Bridge; The Convict Garb at Bermuda in 1848; The Mitchel Family Residence, Dromolane House, Newry; Forging Pikes, 1848; British Military Camp at Tipperary, July, 1848; The Arrest of Smith O’Brien at Thurles Railway Station; Trial of Smith O’Brien at Clonmel, 1848; Removal of Smith O’Brien to Prison under Sentence of Death; William Smith O’Brien, 1848; John Martin, 1848; John Martin, about 1865; Father John Kenyon; Thomas Francis Meagher. A sketch in May, 1848; Brig.-Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher; John Blake Dillon; Thomas Devin Reilly; Michael Doheny; Terence Bellew MacManus; Kevin Izod O’Doherty; “Eva” of “The Nation,” Mrs. Kevin O’Doherty.

[Source: Internet Archive - online; accessed 15.02.2012; see also extracts, under Quotations, infra; and longer extracts in RICORSO Library, “Irish Classics” via index, or direct.]

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Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1876 Edn.)
Contents [Chapters]
I: Introduction - Address of the American Congress “To the People of Ireland,” in 1775 - Satistics and Condition of Ireland - Ireland in 1843 - O’Connell - The Repeal Debate in the Corporation of Dublin - The “Monster Meetings” in 1843 - Opinion in the English Parliament - Sir Robert Peel’s Declaration in Answer to Mr Bernal [Osborne].
II: “Repeal Year” (1843) - Resources of O’Connell - Clare Election, and Catholic Emancipation - Shiel - “Young Ireland” - Davis, Dillon, Duffy - The “Nation” - Resources of the English - Disarming Laws.
III: “The Repeal Year” still - O’Brien’s Motion - Arms Bill - Sir Edward Sugden - Dismissed Magistrates - Arbitrators - More Monster Meetings.
IV: O’Connell’s Oratory - Its Themes - The Whigs - Davis and the “Nation” - The Young Agitators - Tara Meeting - Council of Three Hundred - The Queen’s Speech against Repeal - Great Meeting at Mullaghmast - Meeting at Clontarf forbidden.
V: Determination of the Enemy - Clontarf - The “Projected Massacre” - Arrest of O’Connell and the “Conspirators” - Opening of “Conciliation Hall” - O’Brien joins the Repealers - Preparation for the Trials.
VI: The Trial - System of “Selecting” a Jury in Ireland - Verdict against O’Connell - Debate in Parliament on the State of Ireland - Operation of the Arms Act - Sentence and Imprisonment of O’Connell.
VII: O’Connell in Prison - Davis; his Misgivings - Reversal of the Judgment - Whig Law Lords - Rejoicings in Dublin - The People disappointed - Federalism - O’Brien.
VIII: Approach of the Famine, in 1845 - Repeal prospects after the liberation of O’Connell - Irish Produce exported to England in 1844 - Arms and Detectives in return for it - “Landlord and Tenant” Commission - Ejectment Legislation - Condition of Ireland in 1845 - The Devon Commission - The Tenant-Right of Ulster - Conspiracy of Landlords and Legislators - Sir Robert Peel.
IX: Land-Tenure Report - O’Brien - Eighty-Two Club - Grey Porter - A National Militia - President Polk and Orgeon Territory - Robert Tyler - Colleges Bill - MacNevin - James Haughton - John O’Connell and General Jackson - Lord Stanley’s Bill - “Surplus Population” - Death of Davis - Famine.
X: Davis; his influence, aim, and labours - His opinion of “Imposing Demonstrations” - His Letters - His Death - Fate of MacNevin.
XI: Duties of Government - Alms - Playfair and Lindley - Memorial of the Corporation and Citizens of Dublin - Lord Heytesbury - O’Connell’s proposals - O’Brien’s - Meeting of Parliament - Coercion Bill - Repeal of the Corn Laws - Relief.
XII: Loss of the Irish Crops - Accounts between England and Ireland - Rapid export of Irish harvest and cattle - Sir Robert Peel’s “Remedial Measures” - O’Brien in Parliament - English Press on “Alms” - Sir Robert Peel’s two weapons - Repeal Association - Resistance to the Coercion Bill - Extermination in Connaught - The “Nation” and Young Ireland - Another State Prosecution - Change of Ministry.
XIII: “Relief of Famine” - Importations of grain - Imprisonment of O’Brien - Destruction of the Repeal Association - The Labour-rate Act - More Poor Law Extermination - Recruiting.
XIV: Labour-rate Act - Digging holes - England begs for us - Out-door Relief - “Fast and humiliation” - Quarter-acre clause - The Calculations of “Political Circles” - Two millions of Celtic corpses - America baffled - Parish coffins - Repudiation of Alms by the Nation.
XV: Death of O’Connell - His character - Arrangements for the next year’s famine - Emigration - Report of a “Select Committee” - A New Coercion Act - The Crisis approaches.
XVI: Lord Clarendon, Viceroy - Subterranean agencies of Government - Monahan, Attorney-General - Galway Election.
XVII: Dublin during the Famine - “Young Ireland” - Alarm of the Moneyed Classes - “S. G. O.” - Sudden meeting of Parliament - New Coercion Act - Differences in the Irish Confederation - Break up in the “Nation Office” - O’Brien - The United Irishman.
XVIII: The “United Irishman” Newspaper - Nature of the enterprise - Effect of the French Revolution of February, 1848 - Situation of the Government - Examples.
XIX: March, 1848 - The French Revolution - Waterford Election - Aggregate Meeting in Dublin - Prosecution of O’Brien, Meagher, and Mitchel - O’Brien in the English Parliament - The “Treason-Felony” Act - Trial of O’Brien and Meagher for “Sedition” - The “United Irishman” - Trials for illegal drilling - Prosecution for “Sedition” abandoned - Arrest of Mitchel for “Treason-Felony”.
XX: Rage of the British Press - Protestant Repeal Associations - Lord Clarendon’s Manoeuvres among the Orangemen - Proclamations against “Communists” - The Chartists and Irish in England - Letter to the Protestants of the North - Prosecution.
XXI: Juries in Ireland - Whig professions of impartiality - In the Dock - Holmes - Challenging the array - Closing Scene - The Clubs restrained - Meagher’s Account - My last week in Ireland.
XXII: Triumph of the Enemy - The “Irish Tribune” - The Editors - Habeas Corpus suspended - Numerous Arrests - O’Brien takes to the Country - Carrick - Killenaule - Ballingarry - Dispersion of the people - No Insurrection.
XXIII: Arrest of O’Brien; of Meagher; of MacManus, etc. - Trials - Excuse for more Jury-packing - Excitement in England - Trial of Chartists - Special Commission in Clonmel - Trial of O’Brien for High Treason - Sentence of Death - Trials of MacManus, O’Donohoe, and Meagher - Commutation of the Sentences of Death - Plan for a New “Plantation of Ireland” - Systematic vilification of the Celtic Irish by English writers.
XXIV: Consummation of the “Conquest” - The Queen’s Speech in 1849 - More Coercion - More Poor-law - Depopulation: condition of the people, as described by Mr Duffy in 1849 - Lord John Russell’s “Rate-in-aid” - The “Incumbered Estates Act” - Result to Ireland of Incumbered Estates Court - Queen’s Visit to Ireland in 1849: Popular feeling in Dublin suppressed by the Police - Ireland “tranquil,” “improving,” and “prosperous” - Statistics - Recapitulation - Conclusion.
—See extracts [infra and attached] and full text at Library Ireland online [accessed 19.10.2010]

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Criticism
  • William Dillon, Life of John Mitchel, 2 vols. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1888).
  • Arthur Griffith, ‘A Biographical Sketch’ appended to Jail Journal (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1903).
  • P. S. O’Hegarty, John Mitchel: An Appreciation with Some Account of Young Ireland (Dublin / London: Maunsel 1917).
  • Louis J. Walsh, John Mitchel (1938).
  • J. S[eamus] MacCall, Irish Mitchel: A Biography (London: T Nelson 1938).
  • Niall Ó Dónaill, Beatha Sheáin Mistéil (1937).
  • T[homas] Flanagan, ‘Rebellion and Style, John Mitchel and the Jail Journal,’ in Irish University Review Irish University Review (Autumn 1970).
  • Malcom Brown, ‘[18]48 and the Insurrection’, in The Politics of Irish Literature from Thomas Davis to W. B. Yeats (London: George Allen & Unwin 1972), [Chap. 7], pp.103ff.; also ‘John Mitchel after ‘48’, [Chap. 9], pp.134ff., et passim.
  • Graham Davis, ‘Making History, John Mitchel and the Great Famine’, in Paul Hyland & Neil Sammells, eds., Irish Writing, Exile and Subversion (London: Macmillan 1991), pp.98-115.
  • Christopher Morash, ‘Mitchel’s Hunger’, Writing the Irish Famine (London: Clarendon 1995), pp.52-78.
  • Christopher Morash, ‘The Rhetoric of Right in Mitchel’s Jalil Journal’, in The Literature of Politics, The Politics of Literature [Proceedings of IASIL Leiden 1993], Vol. 1: ed. C. C. Barfoot, Theo D’haen Tjebbe Westendorp, ed., ‘Forging in the Smithy: National Identity and Representation in Anglo-Irish Literary History’ (Amsterdam: Rodopi 1995), pp.207-17.
  • James Quinn, John Mitchel (UCD Press 2008), 128pp.
  • Bryan Fanning & Tom Garvin, ‘John Mitchel, The Jail Journal (1861)’ in Books That Define Ireland (Sallins: Merrion 2014), Chap. 7.
  • Bryan Fanning, ‘John Mitchel and the last conquest of Ireland’, in Histories of the Irish Future (London: Bloomsbury 2015), pp.113-30 [Chap. 8; partially available at Google Books - online]; .
  • Patrick Fitzgerald & Anthony Russell, eds., John Mitchel, Ulster and the Great Famine (Dublin: IAP 2017), 180pp.
See also [q. auth.,] remarks in David Lloyd, James Clarence Mangan; Nationalism and Minor Literature (1987), and James F. Donnelly, ‘The Great Famine: Its Interpreters Old and New’, in History Ireland, 1, 3 (Autumn 1993) [q.pp.]

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Commentary
see another file [infra].

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Quotations
See another file [infra].

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References
Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington 1904), selects passages from Jail Journal incl. Mitchel's meeting with Edward Walsh [on Spike Island] before his departure on prison-ship from Queenstown.

Cabinet of Irish Literature, new edition, revised and greatly extended by Katherine Tynan Hinkson [orig. ed. Charles A. Read, 1867], (London: Gresham Publishing Company 1902-03), Vol. III, selectes “Farewell to Ireland” (from Jail Journal); “Character of O’Connell” (from Last Conquest of Ireland); and “Exile” (from Jail Journal), all. pp..71-78.

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The Cabinet of Irish Literature - Notice on Mitchel (prob. by T. P. O’Connor; rep. in Katherine Tynan, ed., Cabinet (1902-03):

“The subject of this sketch was man of great literary talent, a lover of his country, and one of the most fearless, it may almost be said reckless, among the Young Ireland party [...]” (p.70.)

[ There follows an account of his political career. ]

In 1854, Mr Mitchel established the Citizen newspaper. He subsequently edited the Southern Citizen, and during the American civil war conducted the Richmond Examiner. He, much to the disappointment of his admirers, strongly advocated the Southern cause, but how his principles of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” could agree with slavery is difficult to understand. He proved his sincerity, however, by giving two grave sons to fight for the cause, both of whom fell during the war. The History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time, appeared in 1868. In 1867 Mr. Mitchel had started the Irish Citzen in New York [...] (p.71.)

[...O]n 20th March, 1875, at the residence of his brother-in-law “Honest John Martin”, his stormy spirit at last found a peace. Irishmen of all classes and parties attended Mr. Mitchel's funeral and the mourning was was deep and universal. It was felt that, however wild might be his opinions or rash his deeds, he was of that unbending soul and that incorruptible heart of which heroes are made; and, take him for all in all, he was, perhaps, the most unselfish public man that Ireland has produced in the present generation. It is unjust to his memory, however, to regard him as merely a revolutionary. He was not only a writer, but a writer of genius. His terse sentences have the vigour of perfect lucidity and directness; he is a master of grim humour; and his works are full of passages of picturesque beauty - the pictures being the more striking because, as a rule, drawn with few strokes. His Jail Journal has many beauties, but some of its finest parts appear to us tawdry and long-drawn out, - a not unnatural result of its being written in the too large leisure and too frequent solitude of convict life. The finest of his work. is The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps), which appears to us, in parts at least, worthy of Carlyle. A prefatory notice to the poems of hapless Clarence Mangan, is also a beautifully written sketch - a gem of biography. The History of Ireland, on the other hand, is for the most part slovenly, and probably was not much better than a “pot boiler.” Mitchel also published a series of scathing replies to the calumnious attacks on the Irish people by an English historian, under the title, Froude from the Stand-Point of an Irish Protestant; as well as The Repeal Agitation, The Nurseries of the Famine, and a collection of the poems of Davis.
(pp.70-73; end.)
See longer extracts from Jail Journal and The Last Conquest of Ireland [1861] in The Cabinet of Irish Literature - as attached.

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Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, gives extracts from Jail Journal and from The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1861). Editorial essays and prefatory notes by Seamus Deane everywhere emphasis his theory that the famine involved a conspiracy or collusion between the British Govt. and the Irish landlords to oppress or even exterminate the Irish people; Deane concludes that his narrow rhetoric and political ideology, sharing in the radicalism of Lalor, does not however challenge the racist categories on which the British system in Ireland was based (indeed, Mitchel is blatantly white supremacist); Davitt, Aseneth Nicholson, Sigerson, and others speak of his forceful rhetoric and the influence of his propaganda on Irish and American-Irish nationalism. The scandalous savagery of his sentence in 1848 is underlined. Deane stresses that Jail Journal first appeared in The Citizen, his New York newspaper. Bibl., J. G. Hodges, Report of the Trial of John Mitchell [sic] for Felony at the Commission Court, Dublin, May 1848 (Dublin: Thom 1848); W. Dillon, Life of John Mitchel, 2 vols. (Kegan Paul, Trench 1888); S. MacCall, Irish Mitchel, a Biography (Nelson 1938); R. Davis, The Young Ireland Movement (Gill 1987). [See extracts, as supra.]

See also F. H. O’Donnell (History, 1910): ‘When John Mitchell [sic], the rebel editor of 1848, was carried away into transportation without the thousands of Dublin patriots lifting a finger, he spake thuswise, ‘Adieu, Dublin … city of bellowing slaves and genteel villas! .. c.’ Ed. remarks that the actual quotation is: ‘Dublin City, with its bay and pleasant villas - city of bellowing slaves - villas of genteel dastards - lies now behind us’. [FDA2 339]

Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), cites, W. B. Yeats, Irish National Literature, 1: “From Callanan to Carleton”, which eulogises Mitchel (repr. Yeats, Uncollected Prose, ed. J. Frayne 1970); Arthur Griffith’s pref. to Gill edn. of Jail Journal (1903). Life by William Dillon (1888); Life, by P. A. Sillard (Duffy, 1889); and John Mitchel, by P. S. O’Hegarty (Maunsel 1917) 139p.

R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988) - bio-note: b. Co. Londonderry, ed. TCD; Banbridge solicitor till 1845, joined Repeal Association, 1843; wrote for Nation; Life of Aodh O’Neill (1846); est. Irish Confederation; fnd. United Irishman advocating ‘holy war’ to sweep England out of Ireland; arrested, March 1848; escaped to America during a sentence of 14 yrs., 1853; issued collected eds. of Mangan and Davis; wrote The Last Reconquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1860); acted as a Fenian agent in Paris, 1866; declined secretaryship of IRB, 1867; elected MP Co. Tipperary, 1875, and re-elected on being charged ineligible; died 8 days later. Foster remarks: ‘The Jail Journal (1854), a classic of prison literature (perhaps).’ (Op. cit., p.315.)

Arthur Ponsonby [author of English Diaries from the 16th to the 20th centuries, Methuen 1923], Scottish and Irish Diaries &c (1927), John Mitchel [184ff] and others.

Bernard Share, ed., Far Green Fields: 1500 Years of Irish Travel Writing, ed. (Belfast: Blackstaff 1992), contains extract from John Mitchel, Jail Journal (Dublin: Gill 1913; first publ. 1854)

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Libraries
British Library [1955 Cat.] holds John Mitchel [Editor of ‘The United Irishman’], The Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill, Prince of Ulster, called by the English, Hugh, Earl of Tyrone; with some account of his predecessors, Con, Shane and Tirlough (Dublin: James Duffy 1846), 252pp.; P. A. S [Silliard], The Life of John Mitchel, with an historical sketch of the ’48 movement in Ireland (Dublin: J. Duffy & Co. 1889), pp.xviii+285 [and no others].

University of Ulster (Central Library) holds Jail Journal (Dublin: Gill [1864]), Do., another edn. as Jail journal … with an introductory narrative of transactions in Ireland… with a continuation of the journal in New York and Paris […] (Dublin: Gill 1914); The History of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time [3rd edn.] (Duffy 1868 [sic]), 2 copies; The Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill, Prince of Ulster, Called by the English Hugh, Earl of Tyrone: with some account of his predecessors Con, Shane and Tirlough (Dublin: Duffy 1846); [Mitchel,] An Ulsterman for Ireland (Dublin: Candle Press 1917); The history of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time: being a continuation of the history of the Abbé Macgeoghegan (Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson [1869]); Jail journal: or, Five years in British prisons. Commenced on board the Shearwater steamer, in Dublin bay, continued at Spike island - on board the Scourge war steamer - on board the Dromedary hulk, Bermuda - on board the Neptune convict ship - at Pernambuco - at the cape of Good Hope (during the anti-convict rebellion) - at Van Diemen’s land - at Sydney - at Tahiti - at San Francisco - at Greytown - and concluding at no. 3. pier, North river, New York. By John Mitchel [Author’s edition] (Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson [1876]); Ireland, France, and Prussia: A Selection from the Speeches and Writings of John Mitchel (Dublin: Talbot Press 1918); Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps), bound with Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher: his political and military career with selections from his speeches and writings by W.F. Lyons and, 1641: reply to The falsification of history by James Anthony Froude, entitled The English in Ireland by John Mitchell [sic] (Glasgow & London: Cameron & Ferguson [n.d.]); John Mitchel, intro., Poems of James Clarence Mangan: many hitherto uncollected, edited, with pref. and notes by D. J. O’Donoghue [Centenary edn.] (Dublin: O’Donoghue 1903); Preface of editor; Introduction by John Mitchel; Versions (more or less) from the Irish; Original poems relating to Ireland; Original poems, personal and miscellaneous; Oriental versions and perversions; Oversettings from the German; Miscellaneous versions; Extravaganzas. Also, P. S. O’Hegarty, John Mitchel: an appreciation, with some account of Young Ireland (Dublin & London: Maunsel 1917); Louis J. Walsh, John Mitchel [Noted Irish Lives Series] (Dublin & Cork: The Talbot Press 1934), Do., rep. edn. (London: Duckworth 1934); Seamus MacCall, Irish Mitchel: A Biography (London: Nelson 1938).

University of Ulster (Morris Collection) holds An Apology for the British Government in Ireland (O’Donoghue 1905); The History of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time, being a continuation of the history of the Abbé Mac Geoghegan [3rd edn.] (Duffy 1868); Ireland, France, and Prussia, a Selection of the Speeches … (1918); Jail Journal, or five years in British Prisons (1876, c.1924); The Life and Times of Aodh O’Neill, Prince of Ulster, called by the English Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, with some account of his predecessors Con, Shane, and Tirlough (Duffy 1846), 246p.; An Ulsterman for Ireland (Candle Press, 1917).

Booksellers
De Burca (Catalogue 18) lists History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern, taken from the most authentic records and dedicated to the Irish brigade by Abbé Mac Geoghegan, with a continuation from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time. (NY, Sadlier, n.d.).

Hyland Catalogue (1996) lists The History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present time [n.d.]; Louis J. Walsh, John Mitchel (1938).

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Notes
The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1861) begins with a challenge to British historians in the tradition of Matthew Carey and Daniel O’Connell. It is governed by an ironic refrain on the apparent finality of the English conquest of Ireland at each rebellion and includes familiar quotations from Irish history, many of them recycled from Jail Journal - as is the overarching idea of repeated attempts to conquer the island on the part of the English - notably Burke's remarks on the Penal Laws (quotes ‘a wise and deliberate contrivance ... &c’). The title is deemed to echo a song by Béranger, ‘Ma dernière chanson, Peut-être’ [as indicated in the editorial apparatus to selections in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1992, Vol. II, p.177.)

Weekly Freeman review material on John Mitchel, An Apology for the British Government in Ireland, new edn., with new port. appears as cover-material, viz., ‘scathing book … in Mitchel’s best style’.

Maunsel & Co. book list appended to 1915 printing of St. John Ervine, Mrs. Martin’s Man (1914), giving notice of John Mitchel: A Study in nationalism, by Emile Montegut, intro. J. M. Hone, comparing its account of the romantic career of John Mitchel and its contrast of the English and Irish temperaments in the light of Anglo-French politics, to be compares as an analysis of Irish discontent only with the preface to Mr. Shaw’s John Bull’s Other Island; quotes [as supra] specifically quoting ‘the Irish critic Mr John Eglinton, [who] has said that every Irishman who wishes to “see himself as others see him” should read this essay; adds that Montegut was the translator of Shakespeare and a constant contributor to Revue Des Deux Mondes, chiefly on English subjects, from 1855 to his death at the end of last century’.

Irish Confederates?: Mitchel, then editing Jefferson Davis’ Richmond Enquirer, wrote to the Dublin Nation (14 Feb 1863) during the American Civil War contending that some 40,000 Irishmen were fighting for the Confederacy - a figure now considered too high (see David Gleeson, The Irish in the South, q.d. and Kelly J. O’Grady’s, the Confederate Way! The Irish in the Army of Northern Virginia, 2000). Those who enlisted did so because of the analogy between North/South and Britain/Ireland, and more particularly their opposition to the claims of centralised government, together with a felt comparison between the Repeal the Union campaign in both regions and a perception that they were safeguarding homes and loved ones from foreign invasion. Undoubtedly white supremacy played a role also. An Irishman in Macon, Georgia, wrote to the Nation expressing a desire to preserve slavery and ‘the aristocracy of white blood’ while Mitchel wrote that the ‘Confederates now universally repudiate “Anglo-Saxonism” ... and claim kindred with the Celts.’ (See Cian McMahon; email to Diaspora List, 19.12.2009.) Don McRaild adds: There were 85,000 Irish-born [people] in the South in the early 1860s [with] perhaps the total pool of serviceable age men was 20-25k. (Ibid., also 19.12.2009.)

Packed: ‘A Jury was packed to convict poor John Mitchel / Determined upon their vengeance to wreak, / And when they had tried him and justice denied him / Like a patriot he to the jury did speak: / Saying, “Unjustly you try me, and justice deny me, / And make me victim of tyrannical law, / I nothing am fearing for the rights of old Erin, / I am doom’d to be banished - poor Erin-go-Bragh.’ (Given in Robert L. Wright, ed., Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs, Ohio: Bowling Green UP 1975, p.219; quoted in Daniel McAllister, ‘Subversion in the Poetry of Ciaran Carson’, UG Diss., UUC 2002.)

Thomas Carlyle: UUC stacks copy [of Jail Journal] (c.1880) continues handwritten note to effect that Thomas Carlyle - whose style Mitchel admired and imitated - predicted that Mitchel would be hanged, but added that they could not hang the immortal part of him. This copy includes short biographical notes on persons including M. J. Barry and Thomas Keightley and others less prominent.

Béranger: Note that the title of Mitchel’s The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) (1861), is probably taken from the French poet Béranger, ‘Ma dernière chanson, Peut-etre’ (FDA2 177ftn).


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