Mitchel, John (Purroy) (1879–1918)

US mayor and lawyer. Running as a fusion candidate, he won the New York mayoralty in 1913, the youngest mayor in the city's history. He introduced a number of much-needed civic reforms, including a programme of tax relief, but he was brought down in the 1917 election by the perception that he was undemocratic, along with allegations of scandal.

Born in Fordham, New York; grandson of the ardent Irish nationalist John Mitchel, Mitchel came to prominence as a special investigator of New York City officials (1906). He died in an airplane accident while training for the Aviation Corps in World War I.

Mitchel, John (1815–1875)

Irish journalist and political activist. Born in Dungiven, County Londonderry, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Mitchel wrote extreme nationalist articles for The Nation before working on the United Irishman with James Clarence Mangan and James Fintan Lalor. In 1848 he was convicted of treason–felony and transported, eventually reaching Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). His Jail Journal, or Five Years in British Prisons (1854) is a central 19th-century text of anti-British imperialism and Irish nationalism. He escaped in 1853 and settled in the USA, returning to Ireland in 1875, where he died at Newry just days after being elected to Westminster as member of Parliament for County Tipperary.

Mitchel's published works also include The History of Ireland From the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time (1868) and an 1859 edition of Mangan's poetry.