Billy Mitchell (loyalist)
Encyclopedia
Billy Mitchell was a Northern Irish
community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party
. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder but later abandoned UVF membership and took up cross-community work.
.
After leaving school Mitchell briefly worked as a copy boy
on the Belfast Telegraph but found it difficult to advance his position and so left to work as a lorry driver. Mitchell was attracted to the message of Ian Paisley
and in the mid 1960s joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
and served as a Sunday school
teacher. He had been raised as a member of the Baptist faith.
in 1966. Mitchell would later state that he was prompted to join the UPV by scare stories circulating about plans for the fiftieth anniversarry celebrations of the Easter Rising
, with a rumour even suggesting that the Irish Republican Army
intended to use it as pretext to take control of Newry
. He was close to Noel Doherty
, one of the group's founder, who sought to establish an armed paramiliary structure within the UPV. Doherty kept this plan from the group's other founder Ian Paisley but allowed his closest confidantes, including Mitchell, to become involved in his attempts to set up a paramilitary group. Indeed before long Mitchell became Doherty's right-hand man.
Through Mitchell Doherty made contact with the Shankill Road UVF and obtained gelignite
for them from a UPV contact in Loughgall
. Doherty was caught however and in November 1966 was sentenced to two years imprisonment for explosives offences.
broke out with an explosion of violence from both sides of the religious/political divide. As a consequence the UVF became much more active as violence escalated on both sides. Mitchell rose through the ranks to become one of the senior figures within the movement and was a member of its Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership). He also served as editor of the UVF magazine Combat. When writing for Combat he used the pseudonym 'Richard Cameron' which he took from one of his idols the Scottish
Covenanter
of the same name. However by 1973 Mitchell had become weary of the constant struggle and became one of the main advocates within the group for a ceasefire and attempts to build a resolution. Like many loyalists of his generation Mitchell had been of the belief that the Troubles would be short and that the republicans would be defeated fairly quickly but this had not proven to be the case.
A ceasefire followed with Mitchell claiming at the time that he was tired of the failures of unionist politicians and felt that it was time for the UVF to take on a larger political role. He also reproached the unionists for their role of inciting paramilitary activity through their rhetoric but publicly distancing themselves from organisations like the UVF, contrasting it with the commitment of Edward Carson who made his leadership of the original Ulster Volunteers a matter of public record. Mitchell would later concede that whilst the idea of taking on political influence was in principle sound it suffered because of the lack of any political philosophy amongst the UVF leaders, who were rather working on a "gut feeling" that the unionist parties were failing to deliver.
, who was close to Jim Hanna
, a leading figure in the Shankill UVF. The first such meeting was with members of the Official IRA
in Dublin, with Seán Garland
and Cathal Goulding
present throughout with Tomás Mac Giolla also briefly in attendance. The Officials felt that there was potential common ground, especially as Combat sometimes used left-wing rherotic, but Mitchell felt that they were seeing more than was actually there and pointed out that Combat was an avowedly anti-communist publication that wrote in support of the far-right National Front
. Indeed Mitchell himself had been one of those to show the strongest levels of support for the National Front in the pages of Combat.
Mitchell also held a metting at Lough Sheelin
with Provisional IRA Army Council
members Dáithí Ó Conaill
and Brian Keenan
. Attempts were made to find common ground in light of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
's Éire Nua
policy and Desmond Boal
's advocacy of a federal Ireland as a solution to the conflict. The talks however came to nothing as Boal's idea was largely a personal one and not one acceptable to either the UVF or the mainstream unionist leaders.
Around this time Mitchell and Volunteer Political Party
leader Ken Gibson
also met with Ian Paisley at his Martyrs' Memorial Church in a largely unsuccessful attempt to heal rifts that had opened between the paramilitaries and the United Ulster Unionist Council
with the UVF feeling that they had been sidelined in the new coalition. By this time Mitchell had long since abandoned Free Presbyterianism, as had Gibson, a former member of the church.
that would ultimately see him imprisoned. The roots of the feud lay in the Ulster Workers' Council strike
when a brawl between members of the UVF and the Ulster Defence Association
at a bar in the Tiger's Bay area of north Belfast saw UVF member Joe Shaw killed by a shotgun in what both groups initially agreed was a "tragic accident". However tensions were stoked by the UDA claiming the Dublin and Monaghan bombings
, which had actually been a UVF attack, and drunken fights between members of the rival organisations became common, culminating on 21 February 1975 when east Belfast UDA man Robert Thompson was stabbed and killed in one such brawl. The feud reached a zenith on 7 April when Hugh McVeigh and David Douglas, the UDA members identified by an internal UVF inquiry as responsible for Shaw's death, were abducted and taken to the British Legion Club in Carrickfergus
where they were severely beaten. From there they were taken to a clifftop spot at Islandmagee
where they were forced to dig two graves before being shot dead and their bodies buried in them. It was five months before the bodies were discovered.
Mitchell had not been the gunmen for either murder but he had been the senior ranking officer present throughout and had been with the UDA men as they were driven to their shallow graves. Mitchell was arrested for his involvement in the killings on 5 October 1975, a day after Merlyn Rees had declared the UVF to be an illegal organisaton once again and as part of a Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC) initiative that saw several dozen UVF members arrested, many on the basis of statement provided by informers. Following a 77 day trial that cost £2 million to conduct, Mitchell was one of four UVF members sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders. In handing down the life sentence, with a minimum recommended sentence of 25 years, Lord Justice MacDermott remarked that he believed Mitchell to be the overall leader of the UVF.
, the organiser of the operation and senior UVF volunteer Robin Jackson
loaded a bomb into the car's boot and Hanna then activated it. Bombs were also loaded into the boots of two other cars which had been hijacked that same morning in Belfast. The three drivers were then given their final instructions by Hanna and drove off towards Dublin's city centre. The Ford Escort stolen and delivered by Mitchell ended up in Talbot Street
, where it exploded at approximately 5.30 p.m. killing a total of 14 people, mostly women, including one who was nine-months pregnant. This explosion followed the 5.28 blast in Parnell Street
which had killed 10 people; at 5.32 a third car bomb went off in South Leinster Street, killing another two women outright. It is not known what role Mitchell played after he delivered the stolen car to the North Dublin car park.
had been on the wane and the instructions that he sent out, whilst sometimes acted upon, were often ignored and according to Mitchell on one occasion he even scrawled the word "bollix
" across one of Spence's handwritten communiques. Inside the Maze prison Mitchell was one of a group of UVF men, including Billy Hutchinson
, David Ervine
, Eddie Kinner and William "Plum" Smith
, who came under the influence of Spence, who was advocating a more political approach by the UVF. Within the Maze Mitchell held the post of UVF "administration officer" and prepared an ordinance in November 1978 aimed at providing educational and library facilities for UVF prisoners.
In 1979 Mitchell, who had previously been a Baptist and a Free Presbyterian, became a born-again Christian and renounced his UVF membership.
(PUP) and became involved in "conflict transformation" schemes in interface areas of north Belfast, working alongside republicans. Mitchell described himself as both an evangelical
and a Christian socialist and criticised the politics of Paisleyism, claiming that Paisley's aim was theocracy
. As part of his attempts to foster cross-community dialogue he wrote a column for the Irish nationalist North Belfast News.
In 1999 Mitchell became involved with former IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney
and the two produced a magazine together aiming to discuss the ideological differences and similarities between republicanism and loyalism. The two remained close and toured the Maze Prison together in 2003.
, leading republicans, representatives of Sinn Fein as well as members of the UVF and clergy of various denominations. He was 65 years old at the time of his death and left behind a wife, Mena and two children, Cameron and Juliane.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party
Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...
. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder but later abandoned UVF membership and took up cross-community work.
Early years
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1940 into a poor family, Mitchell's father died when he was two years old. Although based in the Shankill Road during his adult life, Mitchell was raised just outside Belfast in what he described as "a wooden hut". The area, which at the time was the end of the city's tramline network, has subsequently been redeveloped as GlengormleyGlengormley
Glengormley or Glengormly is the name of a townland and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Glengormley is within the urban area called Newtownabbey and the wider Newtownabbey Borough.-Location:...
.
After leaving school Mitchell briefly worked as a copy boy
Copy boy
A copy boy is a typically young and junior worker on a newspaper.The job involves taking typed stories from one section of a newspaper to another....
on the Belfast Telegraph but found it difficult to advance his position and so left to work as a lorry driver. Mitchell was attracted to the message of Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
and in the mid 1960s joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
The Free Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination founded by the Rev. Ian Paisley in 1951. Most of its members live in Northern Ireland...
and served as a Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teacher. He had been raised as a member of the Baptist faith.
Ulster Protestant Volunteers
Mitchell first came to loyalism with the Ulster Protestant VolunteersUlster Protestant Volunteers
The Ulster Protestant Volunteers were a loyalist and fundamentalist Christian paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. They were active between 1966 and 1969 and closely linked to the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee , established by Ian Paisley in 1966.The UPV launched a bombing campaign to...
in 1966. Mitchell would later state that he was prompted to join the UPV by scare stories circulating about plans for the fiftieth anniversarry celebrations of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
, with a rumour even suggesting that the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
intended to use it as pretext to take control of Newry
Newry
Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
. He was close to Noel Doherty
Noel Doherty
Noel Doherty was a Northern Irish loyalist activist who was close to Ian Paisley during his early years in politics. He served as leader of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers and was imprisoned for his involvement in procuring explosives for that movement.-Early years:As a young man in school...
, one of the group's founder, who sought to establish an armed paramiliary structure within the UPV. Doherty kept this plan from the group's other founder Ian Paisley but allowed his closest confidantes, including Mitchell, to become involved in his attempts to set up a paramilitary group. Indeed before long Mitchell became Doherty's right-hand man.
Through Mitchell Doherty made contact with the Shankill Road UVF and obtained gelignite
Gelignite
Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or simply jelly, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre .It was invented in 1875 by Alfred Nobel, who had earlier invented dynamite...
for them from a UPV contact in Loughgall
Loughgall
Loughgall is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 285 people.Loughgall was named after a small nearby loch. The village is at the heart of the apple-growing industry and is surrounded by orchards. Along the village's main street...
. Doherty was caught however and in November 1966 was sentenced to two years imprisonment for explosives offences.
Ulster Volunteer Force
With the UPV a spent force following Doherty's jailing, Mitchell joined the UVF sometime in the late 1960s. Soon after Mitchell joined the UVF, the socio-religious and political conflict known as The TroublesThe Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
broke out with an explosion of violence from both sides of the religious/political divide. As a consequence the UVF became much more active as violence escalated on both sides. Mitchell rose through the ranks to become one of the senior figures within the movement and was a member of its Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership). He also served as editor of the UVF magazine Combat. When writing for Combat he used the pseudonym 'Richard Cameron' which he took from one of his idols the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
of the same name. However by 1973 Mitchell had become weary of the constant struggle and became one of the main advocates within the group for a ceasefire and attempts to build a resolution. Like many loyalists of his generation Mitchell had been of the belief that the Troubles would be short and that the republicans would be defeated fairly quickly but this had not proven to be the case.
A ceasefire followed with Mitchell claiming at the time that he was tired of the failures of unionist politicians and felt that it was time for the UVF to take on a larger political role. He also reproached the unionists for their role of inciting paramilitary activity through their rhetoric but publicly distancing themselves from organisations like the UVF, contrasting it with the commitment of Edward Carson who made his leadership of the original Ulster Volunteers a matter of public record. Mitchell would later concede that whilst the idea of taking on political influence was in principle sound it suffered because of the lack of any political philosophy amongst the UVF leaders, who were rather working on a "gut feeling" that the unionist parties were failing to deliver.
Meetings with opponents
As well as his public declarations in favour of a settlement Mitchell, with the support of the UVF leadership, also held secret talks with Irish republicans. These were arranged by the journalist Kevin MyersKevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent and is a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly...
, who was close to Jim Hanna
Jim Hanna (loyalist)
James Andrew "Jim" Hanna, also known as Red Setter, was a senior member of the Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force until he was shot dead by fellow members, for being an alleged informer. Journalists Joe Tiernan and Kevin Myers described him as having...
, a leading figure in the Shankill UVF. The first such meeting was with members of the Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
in Dublin, with Seán Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
and Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
present throughout with Tomás Mac Giolla also briefly in attendance. The Officials felt that there was potential common ground, especially as Combat sometimes used left-wing rherotic, but Mitchell felt that they were seeing more than was actually there and pointed out that Combat was an avowedly anti-communist publication that wrote in support of the far-right National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
. Indeed Mitchell himself had been one of those to show the strongest levels of support for the National Front in the pages of Combat.
Mitchell also held a metting at Lough Sheelin
Lough Sheelin
Lough Sheelin is a limestone freshwater lough in Ireland located in County Westmeath, County Meath and County Cavan near the village of Finea and the town of Granard County Longford....
with Provisional IRA Army Council
IRA Army Council
The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, more commonly known as the IRA, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The council had seven members, said by the...
members Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
and Brian Keenan
Brian Keenan (Irish republican)
Brian Keenan was a former member of the Army Council of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who received an 18-year prison sentence in 1980 for conspiring to cause explosions, and played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process.-Early life:The son of a member of the Royal Air Force,...
. Attempts were made to find common ground in light of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
's Éire Nua
Éire Nua
Éire Nua, or "New Ireland", was a political strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s. It was particularly associated with the Dublin based leadership group centred around Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill who were the authors of the policy...
policy and Desmond Boal
Desmond Boal
Desmond Boal is a former Unionist politician and barrister from Northern Ireland.Boal had a legal career before he entered politics in 1960. He was the Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the Shankill constituency between 1960 and 1972...
's advocacy of a federal Ireland as a solution to the conflict. The talks however came to nothing as Boal's idea was largely a personal one and not one acceptable to either the UVF or the mainstream unionist leaders.
Around this time Mitchell and Volunteer Political Party
Volunteer Political Party
The Volunteer Political Party was a loyalist political party launched in Northern Ireland on 22 June 1974 by members of the then recently legalised Ulster Volunteer Force . The Chairman was Ken Gibson from East Belfast, an ex-internee and UVF chief of staff at the time...
leader Ken Gibson
Ken Gibson (loyalist)
Kenneth "Ken" Gibson was a Northern Irish politician, who acted as the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party which he had helped to form in 1974...
also met with Ian Paisley at his Martyrs' Memorial Church in a largely unsuccessful attempt to heal rifts that had opened between the paramilitaries and the United Ulster Unionist Council
United Ulster Unionist Council
The United Ulster Unionist Council was a body that sought to bring together the Unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland.-Formation:The UUUC was established in January 1974...
with the UVF feeling that they had been sidelined in the new coalition. By this time Mitchell had long since abandoned Free Presbyterianism, as had Gibson, a former member of the church.
Feud
Following the collapse of the 1973 ceasefire Mitchell became embroiled in a Loyalist feudLoyalist feud
A loyalist feud refers to any of the sporadic feuds which have erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups since they were founded shortly before and after the religious/political conflict known as The Troubles broke out in the late 1960s...
that would ultimately see him imprisoned. The roots of the feud lay in the Ulster Workers' Council strike
Ulster Workers' Council Strike
The Ulster Workers' Council strike was a general strike that took place in Northern Ireland between 15 May and 28 May 1974, during "The Troubles". The strike was called by loyalists and unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had been signed in December 1973...
when a brawl between members of the UVF and the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
at a bar in the Tiger's Bay area of north Belfast saw UVF member Joe Shaw killed by a shotgun in what both groups initially agreed was a "tragic accident". However tensions were stoked by the UDA claiming the Dublin and Monaghan bombings
Dublin and Monaghan Bombings
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. The attacks killed 33 civilians and wounded almost 300 – the highest number of casualties in any single day during the conflict known as The Troubles.A loyalist...
, which had actually been a UVF attack, and drunken fights between members of the rival organisations became common, culminating on 21 February 1975 when east Belfast UDA man Robert Thompson was stabbed and killed in one such brawl. The feud reached a zenith on 7 April when Hugh McVeigh and David Douglas, the UDA members identified by an internal UVF inquiry as responsible for Shaw's death, were abducted and taken to the British Legion Club in Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus , known locally and colloquially as "Carrick", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th century king...
where they were severely beaten. From there they were taken to a clifftop spot at Islandmagee
Islandmagee
Islandmagee is a peninsula on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Carrickfergus. It is part of the Larne Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural community with a long history since the mesolithic period.As part of an...
where they were forced to dig two graves before being shot dead and their bodies buried in them. It was five months before the bodies were discovered.
Mitchell had not been the gunmen for either murder but he had been the senior ranking officer present throughout and had been with the UDA men as they were driven to their shallow graves. Mitchell was arrested for his involvement in the killings on 5 October 1975, a day after Merlyn Rees had declared the UVF to be an illegal organisaton once again and as part of a Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
(RUC) initiative that saw several dozen UVF members arrested, many on the basis of statement provided by informers. Following a 77 day trial that cost £2 million to conduct, Mitchell was one of four UVF members sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders. In handing down the life sentence, with a minimum recommended sentence of 25 years, Lord Justice MacDermott remarked that he believed Mitchell to be the overall leader of the UVF.
Alleged involvement in the 1974 Dublin bombings
According to journalist Joe Tiernan, Mitchell and an unnamed UVF commander from East Belfast stole a metallic blue mink Ford Escort from the Belfast Docks area on the morning of 17 May 1974. It was the third day of the UWC strike. The car was the property of William Shannon, a motor mechanic living in Hollyood, County Down. He reported it as stolen to the RUC at 10.30 a.m. Tiernan maintained that Mitchell and the UVF commander drove the Escort across the Republic of Ireland border down to a Dublin car park without stopping. Upon reaching the car park on the northern outskirts of Dublin, they met up with the other members of the UVF bomb team. Mid-Ulster Brigade leader Billy HannaBilly Hanna
William Henry Wilson "Billy" Hanna MM was a high-ranking Northern Irish loyalist who founded and led the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force until he was killed, allegedly by Robin Jackson, who took over command of the brigade.According to RUC Special Patrol Group officer John Weir,...
, the organiser of the operation and senior UVF volunteer Robin Jackson
Robin Jackson
Robert John "Robin" Jackson, known as the Jackal was a Northern Irish loyalist who held the rank of brigadier in the Ulster Volunteer Force during the period of violent religious and political conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.From his home in the small village of Donaghcloney,...
loaded a bomb into the car's boot and Hanna then activated it. Bombs were also loaded into the boots of two other cars which had been hijacked that same morning in Belfast. The three drivers were then given their final instructions by Hanna and drove off towards Dublin's city centre. The Ford Escort stolen and delivered by Mitchell ended up in Talbot Street
Talbot Street
Talbot Street is a city-centre street located on Dublin's Northside and is one of the principal shopping streets of Dublin, running from Connolly station and the IFSC at Amiens Street in the east to Marlborough Street in the west. The street is named after Charles Chetwynd, 3rd Earl of Talbot,...
, where it exploded at approximately 5.30 p.m. killing a total of 14 people, mostly women, including one who was nine-months pregnant. This explosion followed the 5.28 blast in Parnell Street
Parnell Street
Parnell Street is located on Dublin's Northside and runs from Capel Street in the west to Gardiner Street and Mountjoy Square in the east, and is at the north end of O'Connell Street, where it provides the south side of Parnell Square....
which had killed 10 people; at 5.32 a third car bomb went off in South Leinster Street, killing another two women outright. It is not known what role Mitchell played after he delivered the stolen car to the North Dublin car park.
In prison
Within the UVF the influence of imprisoned leader Gusty SpenceGusty Spence
Augustus Andrew "Gusty" Spence was a leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force and a leading loyalist politician. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade but later renounced violence and joined the Progressive Unionist...
had been on the wane and the instructions that he sent out, whilst sometimes acted upon, were often ignored and according to Mitchell on one occasion he even scrawled the word "bollix
Bollocks
"Bollocks" is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English, as a noun to mean "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless"...
" across one of Spence's handwritten communiques. Inside the Maze prison Mitchell was one of a group of UVF men, including Billy Hutchinson
Billy Hutchinson
Billy Hutchinson is the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. He was elected to Belfast City Council in 1997 and to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. He lost his assembly seat in 2003 and his council seat in 2005...
, David Ervine
David Ervine
David Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...
, Eddie Kinner and William "Plum" Smith
William Smith (loyalist)
William Smith is a Northern Irish Loyalist former paramilitary and politician. He has been involved in loyalism in various capacities for at least forty years.-Early life:...
, who came under the influence of Spence, who was advocating a more political approach by the UVF. Within the Maze Mitchell held the post of UVF "administration officer" and prepared an ordinance in November 1978 aimed at providing educational and library facilities for UVF prisoners.
In 1979 Mitchell, who had previously been a Baptist and a Free Presbyterian, became a born-again Christian and renounced his UVF membership.
Post-release
Mitchell was released from prison on licence in 1990. He quickly became a member of the Progressive Unionist PartyProgressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...
(PUP) and became involved in "conflict transformation" schemes in interface areas of north Belfast, working alongside republicans. Mitchell described himself as both an evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
and a Christian socialist and criticised the politics of Paisleyism, claiming that Paisley's aim was theocracy
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
. As part of his attempts to foster cross-community dialogue he wrote a column for the Irish nationalist North Belfast News.
In 1999 Mitchell became involved with former IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney
Tommy McKearney
Tommy McKearney is an Irish republican, socialist, and former hunger striker and volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.-Background:McKearney was born into a family with a long republican tradition...
and the two produced a magazine together aiming to discuss the ideological differences and similarities between republicanism and loyalism. The two remained close and toured the Maze Prison together in 2003.
Death
Mitchell died of a heart attack on 22 July 2006 and was buried at the Church of the Nazarene in Carrickfergus on 25 July. His funeral was attended by PUP leader David ErvineDavid Ervine
David Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...
, leading republicans, representatives of Sinn Fein as well as members of the UVF and clergy of various denominations. He was 65 years old at the time of his death and left behind a wife, Mena and two children, Cameron and Juliane.