The Vanishing Commissar
As the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues, Queen's University in Belfast has cut all its ties with its former Chancellor, Senator George J. Mitchell
Almost two years ago Queen’s University Belfast, my old alma mater, was celebrating its close ties to former US Senator George J. Mitchell.
A leading Democratic Party politician, Senator Mitchell chaired the multi-party talks that led to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998.
He quickly won the respect of the political parties.
In April 2023 the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Ian Greer, acknowledged his role:
“Queen’s is privileged to have a longstanding and deeply valued relationship with Senator Mitchell, a statesman who has left an indelible mark on this region.”
Significantly, Mitchell was applauded for laying down the guardrails for negotiations, “The Mitchell Principles”, which meant all parties had to adhere to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
For many people, Mitchell was seen - and continues to be seen - as a totemic figure of the Northern Ireland peace process.
He was the man who persuaded those involved in negotiations to do what was right for all the people of this divided place.
Some might go as far as to say there would be no peace process without his input.
It was certainly something I acknowledged as a young student.
I first attended university in the immediate aftermath of the Omagh bomb, a terrorist atrocity committed by dissident republicans who slaughtered 29 men, women and children and injured hundreds more.
Two of those injured that day lived in my halls of residence. One of them had been blown through a plate glass window, leaving him with horrendous injuries.
As 18-year-olds none of us had to be reminded of the price to be paid for deadly armed conflict.
Senator Mitchell captured our thoughts and feelings well on a visit to Omagh in September 1995, describing it as a “emotional and spiritual turning point” in the peace process.
Senator Mitchell was frequently in the media offering inspirational words of encouragement. In an article published in 1999 he wrote:
“I believe there is no such thing as a conflict that cannot be ended. They are created and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail.”
Senator Mitchell seemed to have come to represent a sort of paragon of virtue as we sought to realise his vision for a more optimistic future.
For almost 30 years Mitchell has been one of the ‘sacred cows’ of the peace process.
The Vanishing Commissar
When Senator Mitchell returned to Queen’s to officially open Agreement 25 conference in April 2023, his keynote speech was tempered with the same optimism he held in the 1990s.
To mark Senator Mitchell’s input into the long search for peace, Queen’s erected a bust of him outside its famous old building.
It was unveiled by Senator Mitchell and the then Chancellor, Hillary Clinton, along with other ‘architects’ of the peace process.
Mitchell’s participation was represented by the university as a monumental occasion as they pulled out all the brakes in their eulogies of him.
Subliminally, the occasion was even used as an opportunity by Rishi Sunak’s government as a means of persuading local politicians to return to Stormont after yet another suspension of the Assembly and Executive.
It seemed to do the trick as the parties returned to the power-sharing institutions in early 2024.
And Senator Mitchell was back in Queen’s again a few months later to give a keynote speech at their high-profile “passing the torch” event.
His speech helped underscore the importance of maintaining the path to peace. It is worth quoting at length:
“The future is not about losing. It is about gaining. And it is therefore - once again - about sharing. Sharing ideas. Sharing plans. Sharing successes. And, yes, if they occur, sharing losses.
Going forward, we need to be prepared for any mistakes we might make. We must be agile enough to recorrect where necessary. We need to listen across the divides. We need to be fully informed. We need to tune out the disinformation. We need to shoulder the burdens together.
We must not get distracted by the buzzing bees of those small-minded people who want to narrow the laneways of our thought. We must build consensus. We need to embrace difficulty and not allow any natural human differences - geographical, religious, even aspirational - to cleave us open.
It is often said that every conflict is a battle of the story that we tell. That is true. But it is also true that every resolution comes in the manner that we listen.
In short, we need to listen to one another. And listen well.”
A senior Irish government minister was on hand to praise Senator Mitchell for his tireless advocacy on behalf of the peace process.
The event was a huge success, especially for the young people in attendance from across the island.
Within a few months, however, it would all be overtaken by revelations in the US.
The release of another tranche of over 3.5 million documents by the US Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act on 30 January 2026 threw Senator Mitchell’s relationship with notorious pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein under a renewed spotlight.
Queen’s acted quickly.
In a statement issued to the BBC on 2 February 2026, the university said:
“While no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made, the university has concluded that, in light of this material, and mindful of the experiences of victims and survivors, it is no longer appropriate for its institutional spaces and entities to continue to bear his name.
As a civic institution with a global reputation for leadership in peace, reconciliation, and justice, Queen’s University Belfast must ensure that its honours and symbols reflect the highest standards consistent with its values and responsibilities.”
I was invited onto BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme to give my views on the statement, presumably because I am an alumnus of the university who has written extensively about the peace process.
My personal instinct was to welcome the decision. In keeping with the position of my trade union comrades in the local branch of the University College Union, which represents staff at Queen’s, had been calling for the university take such action since a partial release of the Epstein Files in September last year. Then Mitchell was mentioned in the documents and forced to issue a statement in response, more of which later.
The UCU then released a statement on 2 February supporting the decision by Queen’s and reinforcing its original position:
“The values of our trade union movement are justice, equality, and fairness, which we expect to be upheld by our university and those who publicly represent it. It is evident that Senator George J. Mitchell fails to meet these standards, and so all links must be removed.”
What I remain less comfortable about, however, is the rather blunt attempt to erase all mention of Senator Mitchell across the university, without any attempt at public transparency and accountability.
We have become accustomed to the idea of erasing high-profile figures who have been accused of personal transgressions. The #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatters social media led movements were important watershed moments that led to greater public scrutiny of powerful and influential people and institutions.
We could debate whether this actually led to broader structural changes.
Nevertheless, if we follow the logic of this new form of “cancel culture,” we are being asked to pretend as if Senator Mitchell had not spent the past 27 years of his professional life presiding over countless graduations, conferences and high-profile events.
Whether intentionally or not, the university appears to have become an instigator of a broader process of collective amnesia.
In many ways it is akin to the manipulation of the historical record by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s.
One of the best documented attempts to write Stalin’s enemies out of the record was Leon Trotsky, the one-time Commissar in charge of the Red Army. He was simply erased from all photographs and records.
It was not a credible method of managing people out of existence then.
Nor is it now.
The university has left questions unanswered.
In relation to Senator Mitchell it seems to me these are:
What does Queen’s University hope to achieve by erasing one of its most prominent global leaders?
Will Senator Mitchell be given the right of reply?
More broadly, are we now being asked to revise our collective memory in relation to Senator Mitchell’s role in the peace process?
I suppose we will have to wait on further developments so as to get the answers to these questions.
Many More Years of Your Friendship
In the meantime, social media platforms are replete with claims and counter-claims about Senator Mitchell.
It is worth looking at some of these, particularly the small matter of Senator Mitchell’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Their friendship began in the early 1990s after a chance encounter at an airport in Washington.
Mitchell revealed as much in a gushing letter to Epstein that was placed in Epstein’s 50th Birthday Book:
Epstein too regarded Mitchell as “my very close friend”, as the latest DoJ tranche of documents indicate:
As his “very close friend,” Epstein would sometimes fly Mitchell around in his private jet.
Logs released by the DoJ in early 2025 confirm Mitchell travelled on Epstein’s plane in 1994 and 1995:
So far, that is as much as we know.
Mitchell and Epstein were “good friends.”
In September 2025 Senator Mitchell released a statement to the BBC, regarding the birthday book letter.
He maintained their friendship ended in 2008 after he “first learned of those actions through published reports of Epstein’s prosecution in Florida. He never had any contact with Mr. Epstein again.”
However, the release of a new tranche of Epstein Files by the DoJ seems to contradict this statement, with some documents suggesting tentative arrangements for meetings at various times between 2011 and 2015.
Nonetheless, the new documents would appear to have been the tipping point in the decision by Queen’s University to terminate their relationship with Senator Mitchell.
No Man is an Island, Entire of Itself
I suspect more information will come to light about the nature of the relationships Epstein had with and many of those who feature prominently in the news headlines.
That may well include George Mitchell.
In the meantime, it is probably appropriate to remain cautious, as the Belfast Newsletter reminded us today,
“There might be a time when these institutions should cut their links with Senator Mitchell but until any such time his record here deserves gratitude and respect.”
Many people may well opt to follow this logic.
It rests on the long-held belief that those accused of something are innocent until proven guilty.
When we look at other architects of the peace process, we can understand why people may have to engage in trade offs.
For instance, there are many people who were grateful to Tony Blair for his role in bringing about the Agreement but who would later part company with him over his decision to take the UK to war in Iraq.
It is, therefore, entirely possible to disaggregate individuals from the broader political projects they were involved in.
The peace process came about for a range of reasons over a long period of time.
It stuck because of the hard work of a lot of people on the ground practising restraint, as well as a few deals done around well-polished conference tables.
Those who bore the brunt of Troubles-related violence may be grateful for the opportunity afforded by the “great and the good” who orientated them towards the prize of peace.
What the people themselves achieved after these politicians departed the scene does not have to stand or fall on the basis of subsequent allegations or revelations about these individuals, no matter how integral they were seen to the process.
Disclaimer
Senator George J. Mitchell has consistently denied any wrong-doing. A spokesman for Mr Mitchell has reiterated his earlier statement that he “profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women” and that Senator Mitchell “did not at any time observe, suspect or have any knowledge of Epstein engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage women.”