Tom Mitchell (politician)

Thomas James Mitchell (born 29 July 1931) is an Irish republican. He was active in the Irish Republican Army and took part in a raid on Omagh barracks in 1954, being captured and imprisoned. While in gaol he was twice elected as a Member of the United Kingdom Parliament, but was disqualified and his elections overturned.

Mitchell was born in Dublin, and was working there as a bricklayer in 1954. He took part in an unsuccessful IRA raid on a British Army barracks in Omagh, County Tyrone in October 1954, and as a result received a sentence of ten years' imprisonment for treason felony.

While serving his sentence in Crumlin Road (HM Prison), Mitchell was nominated as a Sinn Féin candidate on an abstentionist platform for the Mid-Ulster constituency in the May 1955 UK general election. Mitchell won 29,737 votes, winning the election with a majority of 260. The 1955 elections were historic for Sinn Féin as it was the first time that the party had contested all constituencies in Northern Ireland since 1921, and the first time since 1918 that any Sinn Féin candidates had been elected for Northern Ireland constituencies in the British House of Commons.

The Forfeiture Act 1870 provided that anyone convicted of treason or felony and sentenced to a term of imprisonment exceeding twelve months was incapable of being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons. On 18 July 1955 a resolution of the House of Commons, passed by 197 votes to 63, formally declared that Mitchell was covered by this provision, vacated his seat, and ordered that a by-election be held. The ensuing by-election was held on 11 August. Mitchell once again stood as a candidate, facing the same Ulster Unionist Party opponent as in the general election. He won the election with an increased vote and a majority of 806.

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