Editing John Mitchel (section)

===Succeeds Thomas Davis===
[[File:Thomas Davis Young Irelander.JPG|150px|left|thumb|[[Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)|Thomas Davis]]]]

Mitchel began to write for the ''Nation'' in February 1843. He co-authored an editorial with Thomas Davis, "the Anti-Irish Catholics", in which he embraced Davis's promotion of the [[Irish language]] and of [[Gaelic Ireland|Gaelic tradition]] as a non-sectarian basis for a common Irish nationality. Mitchel, however, did not share Davis's anti-[[clericalism]], declining to support Davis as he sought to reverse O'Connell's opposition to the government's secular, or as O'Connell proposed "Godless", Colleges Bill.<ref name="McGovern">{{cite book |last1=McGovern |first1=Bryan P. |title=John Mitchel: Irish Nationalist, Southern Secessionist |date=2009 |publisher=University of Tennessee |location=Knoxville |isbn=9781572336544 |pages=12, 15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qtg9jS2M9vYC&q=McGovern,+John+Mitchel:+Irish+Nationalist,+southern+Secessionist |access-date=3 January 2021}}</ref>

Mitchel insisted that the government, aware that it would cause dissension, had introduced their bill for non-religious higher education to divide the national movement. But he also argued that religion is integral to education; that "all subjects of human knowledge and speculation (except abstract science)--and history most of all--are necessarily regarded from ''either'' a Catholic or a Protestant point of view, and cannot be understood or conceived at all if looked at from either, or from both".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mitchel |first1=John |title=An Apology for the British Government in Ireland |date=1905 |publisher=O'Donoghue |location=Dublin |page=65}}</ref> For Mitchel a cultural nationalism based on Ireland's Gaelic heritage was intended not to displace the two religious traditions but rather serve as common ground between them.<ref name="McGovern" />

When in September 1845, Davis unexpectedly died of scarlet fever, Duffy asked Mitchel to join the ''Nation'' as chief editorial writer. He left his legal practice in Newry, and brought his wife and children to live in Dublin, eventually settling in [[Rathmines]].<ref name="T.F. O'Sullivan"/> For the next two years Mitchel wrote both political and historical articles and reviews for ''The Nation''. He reviewed the ''Speeches'' of [[John Philpot Curran]], a pamphlet by [[Isaac Butt]] on ''The Protection of Home Industry'', ''The Age of [[William Pitt the Younger|Pitt]] and [[Charles James Fox|Fox]]'', and later on ''The Poets and Dramatists of Ireland'', edited by [[Denis Florence MacCarthy]] (4 April 1846); ''The Industrial History of Free Nations'', by [[William McCullagh Torrens|Torrens McCullagh]], and [[C. P. Meehan|Father Meehan]]'s ''[[Confederate Ireland|The Confederation of Kilkenny]]'' (8 August 1846).