Thread by @PatrickCorrigan

“We deny that it is a crime, or a wrong, to hold slaves, to buy slaves, to keep slaves to their work by flogging...”

- John Mitchel, white supremacist and pro-slavery advocate, honoured in present-day Newry, Co Down, with a prominent statue and two roads named for him. 1/

The toppling of the statue of slave-owner Edward Colston in Bristol has helped re-ignite the debate about the rightful place for such statues - atop a pedestal or at the bottom of a river. I'm going to focus on the one in my council area, that of John Mitchel in Newry. 2/

Mitchel wasn't a slave-owner, but was a huge advocate for slavery in the United States, even after its civil war, during which he & his sons fought for the slave-owning Confederacy.

“The Institution of Negro Slavery is a sound, just, wholesome Institution...” - John Mitchel 3/

Mitchel was also a virulent racist.

Writing about Black people, he said they are “innately inferior... We wish we had a good plantation well-stocked with healthy negroes in Alabama.” 4/

The “enslavement of men” did not apply to “negro slaves”. According to Mitchel, this is because:

“To enslave them is impossible or to set them free either. They are born and bred slaves.” 5/

That's obviously not why he is honoured in Newry - that's for his services to Ireland.

Mitchel was a 19th century Irish nationalist activist, writer, and journalist. Born near Dungiven, reared in Newry, he was a leading Young Irelander & outspoken critic of Britain's rule. 6/

In May 1848 Mitchel was arrested under the new Treason Felony Act, convicted and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. He was transported to Van Dieman's Land, (now Tasmania) and ultimately escaped to the US in 1853. More here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mitc…
7/

But he didn’t become pro-slavery on arrival in the US. He was already expounding these views in Ireland. As @Limerick1914 has noted, Charles Gavan Duffy, editor of Ireland's 'Nation' newspaper, found Mitchel’s pro-slavery beliefs repugnant: (See: thejournal.ie/readme/john-mi…) 8/

Duffy, who subsequently emigrated to Australia and became Premier of Victoria, observed that Mitchel’s hateful beliefs were:

“strangely unsuitable equipment for a spokesman of Irish liberty.” 9/

Many other fellow Irish nationalists of the time did not share Mitchel’s pro-slavery views. The Liberator, Daniel O'Connell, did not just believe in emancipation for people in Ireland:

"Liberty in America means the power to flog slaves, and to work them for nothing." 10/

In the US, Mitchel became one of slavery’s biggest advocates and supported re-opening the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave who visited Ireland in 1845 and was once an admirer of Mitchel, ultimately branded him a “traitor to humanity”. 11/

John Mitchel even advocated Ireland becoming a slavocracy like the southern US states:

“If you are asked ‘Would you like an Irish Republic with an accompaniment of slave plantations?’ answer quite simply, ‘Yes.’”
12/

Fast-forward to 2020 and statues of slave-owners are coming down. Local people have started campaigning to have Mitchel removed. Someone's even hung a Black Lives Matter placard around his neck.

(Photo: Mark McLoughlin via @newryie) newry.ie/news/john-mitc… 13/

Thousands have now signed a number of online petitions, including this one jointly started by Aidan McQuade @the_mcquade, former director of Anti-Slavery International: chng.it/hWHYgFGC 14/

The calls are supported by some voices within modern-day Irish nationalism, including well-known Irish-American journalist, @NiallODowd, who says of Mitchel:

“Time to strike him from the list of Irish American heroes.” irishcentral.com/opinion/niallo…
15/

While the petitions may be gathering plenty of support, so far local councillors do not seem so keen to remove the statue, according to this article @newryie newry.ie/news/john-mitc… 16/

One unionist councillor opposes the removal of the statue, concerned about, “creating a dangerous precedent... I’d worry people would find other streets and names where they’d find fault with it or have some issue from a historical context.” newsletter.co.uk/heritage-and-r… 17/

A nationalist councillor opposes removal of the statue, and instead suggests amending the plaque and “developing an educational programme... using Mitchel as an example of how racism is wrong.”

By putting the town's biggest racist on a pedestal? Quite the lesson.
18/

Another councillor: “We should use his story to show our citizens young and old that racism is wrong and has no place in our community.”

Apart from on a plinth in the middle of town, obviously. Quite a prominent place really for Newry's most famous pro-slavery advocate. 20/

What sort of lesson would it be for Black and minority ethnic children to walk past the statue of an unapologetic white supremacist on the way to school every day?

Look kids, this is what Newry thinks of you. Surely not. 21/

What sort of lesson is to kids of any background if one of the only statues in your hometown is an avowed pro-slavery advocate, whose well-known racist views are overlooked because he was sound on the Irish question?

In 2020.
22/

My local councillors seem to want to kill off demand for the statue of John Mitchel to come down, by burying it in process and equivocation at the Council’s 'Good Relations working group'. Not good enough.

If #BlackLivesMatter, then #MitchelMustFall
END change.org/p/newry-mourne…

Postscript: @BBCNewsNI spoke to black people from Northern Ireland about their experiences of racism and what needs to change. Maybe one for councillors @nmdcouncil to consider bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-nor…