Editing John Mitchel (section)

==Early politics==
One of Mitchel's first steps into Irish politics was to face down threats of [[Orange Order]] retaliation by helping arrange, in September 1839, a public dinner in Newry for [[Daniel O'Connell]]. O'Connell was the leader of the campaign to repeal the [[Acts of Union 1800|1800 Acts of Union]] and restore an [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]].<ref name="Dillon">William Dillon, ''The Life of John Mitchel'' (London, 1888) 2 Vols. Ch III</ref>

Until his marriage, John Mitchel had by and large taken his politics from his father who, according to Mitchel's early biographer William Dillon, had "begun to comprehend the degradation of his countrymen". Soon after the granting of [[Catholic emancipation]] in 1829, the O'Connellites challenged the [[Protestant Ascendancy]] in Newry by running a Catholic parliamentary candidate. Many members of the Rev. Mitchel's congregation took an active part in the elections on the side of the [[Protestant Ascendancy|Ascendancy]], and pressed the Rev. Mitchel to do the same. His refusal to do earned him the nickname "Papist Mitchel."<ref name="Dillon"/>

In Banbridge, Mitchel was often employed by the Catholics in the legal proceedings arising from provocative, sometimes violent, Orange incursions into their districts. Seeing how cases were handled by magistrates, who were themselves often Orangemen, enraged Mitchel's sense of justice and spurred his interest in national politics and reform.<ref name="Dillon"/>

In October 1842, his friend [[John Martin (Young Irelander)|John Martin]] sent Mitchel the first copy of [[The Nation (Irish newspaper)|''The Nation'']] produced in Dublin by [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]], who had previously been editor of the O'Connellite journal, ''The Vindicator'', in [[Belfast]], and by [[Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)|Thomas Osborne Davis]], and [[John Blake Dillon]].  Martin and Davis were both, like Mitchell himself, Protestants and graduates of Trinity College. "I think ''The Nation'' will do very well", he wrote Martin, while adding that he knew how the country "ought to take" news that an additional 20,000 troops were to be deployed to Ireland but would not put it on paper for fear of being arrested.<ref name="Dillon"/>