Cork City Council votes to revoke freedom of city honour for George Mitchell

While a motion to revoke the freedom of Cork city to former US senator George Mitchell was passed at a meeting of Cork City Council on Monday night, the council has said it can find “no legislative basis” for revoking the honour.

The motion was introduced after the revelation of Mr Mitchell’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. 

George Mitchell served as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2001, during which time he brokered the Good Friday Agreement, and the freedom of Cork was conferred upon him in 1998 to recognise his role in the peace process.

At Monday night’s meeting of Cork City Council, a motion by Solidarity/People Before Profit councillor Brian McCarthy calling for this freedom to be revoked was passed, with 19 votes in favour and nine against.

Mr McCarthy’s motion read: “Former US senator George Mitchell has been proved to have been lying when he said he cut all ties with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted. He continued to have contact with him and may even have met him.”

His motion commended the US-Ireland Alliance for removing his name from their scholarship programme and Queen’s University Belfast for removing his name from the Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and also removing a bust of him from campus.

Stand with survivors

“This motion calls on Cork City Council to follow their example and show we stand with survivors by revoking the Freedom of Cork given to Mitchell in 1998.” 

He received cross-party support for his motion, with Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan speaking in favour of it.

Mr O’Callaghan told The Echo after the meeting: “He hasn’t been convicted of anything, but no one has been prosecuted for being clients of Epstein, and the way things are looking in America, no one is likely to be prosecuted.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for Cork City Council to have any association with someone about whom very serious allegations have been made by a credible witness, and who has been demonstrated to have continued a friendship with Epstein after his 2008 conviction and lied about it.”

A spokesperson for Cork City Council told The Echo that there is currently no established policy for revoking the freedom of the city, and that though they noted the results of the vote, “the executive can find no legislative basis for revoking the Freedom of the City. Former Senator Mitchell has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing, and has denied allegations of wrongdoing.”