Queen’s Sever Ties with George Mitchell amid Epstein Allegations
By James McCann
Queen’s University Belfast has ended its formal ties with George Mitchell, the former U.S. senator who chaired talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement and later served as the university’s chancellor. The move follows renewed scrutiny of his alleged connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The announcement came last Monday after the U.S. Department of Justice released more than three million documents related to Epstein.
In response, the bust of Mitchell outside Whitla Hall has been removed, and his name will be dropped from the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.
Mitchell’s role in the Northern Ireland peace process was significant. As chair of the 1998 talks, he acted as a neutral mediator and helped bring unionist and nationalist parties to a compromise after decades of violence. Former UVF member Billy Hutchinson later said Mitchell “listened us to agreement.”[1]
Mitchell served as chancellor of Queen’s from 1999 to 2009 and was widely praised for his part in the Good Friday Agreement.However, allegations linking Mitchell to Epstein are not new. In 2019, unsealed court documents revealed that Virginia Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Mitchell in the early 2000s. Mitchell has strongly denied the claim [2].
A 2003 birthday message from Mitchell to Epstein suggests their connection went beyond casual acquaintances. Writing for Epstein’s 50th, Mitchell expressed gratitude for their friendship and hoped it would last for “many more years” [3]. The note was included in a compilation of messages from Epstein’s closest friends, highlighting the personal nature of their relationship.
Despite these public allegations, Queen’s unveiled a £35,000 bust of Mitchell in April 2023 as part of events marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. [4] Given that concerns about Mitchell’s alleged links to Epstein were already well documented at the time, the decision to commission the bust has prompted serious questions about the university’s judgement.
Mitchell continues to deny any involvement with Epstein or any contact with Giuffre. After Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring minors for prostitution, a spokesperson for Mitchell claimed that Epstein had “extended a small number of invitations to the Senator, all of which he declined or deflected.”
Yet the newly released documents suggest Mitchell remained in contact with Epstein after that conviction. An email dated 23 May 2011 from Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff said: “Senator Mitchell gave me his new cell number!!” Another email from December 2012 said: “You have Senator Mitchell at 4:30 today.” [5]
A search of the Department of Justice Epstein Library shows that Mitchell’s name appears 299 times, with correspondence indicating contact as late as 2015 and repeated interactions after Epstein’s conviction. [6]
The allegations against Mitchell are deeply concerning, yet the removal of his image from Queen’s presents a unique opportunity, a chance to commemorate the people of Northern Ireland involved in the peace process.
Mitchell’s contribution mattered, but the agreement would not have succeeded without leaders such as John Hume and David Trimble, and without the support of the people of Northern Ireland. For their efforts, Hume and Trimble won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. Both were controversial figures, but they set aside their differences to work together. Mitchell’s role in the peace process cannot be erased, but neither can the allegations against him be ignored.
If Queen’s wishes to mark its connection to the Good Friday Agreement, it should arguably do so by recognising the achievements of Hume and Trimble, whose leadership and commitment were central to the peace process. Rather than elevating American figures whose legacies are shrouded in controversy, Queen’s University has the opportunity to honour the genuine, local architects of peace in Northern Ireland.
References
[1] The Rest is Politics Leading: 105. War and Peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East (George Mitchell)
[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/10/us/epstein-court-documents-allegations
