Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder.

[3] Mitchell was attracted to the message of Ian Paisley and in the mid 1960s joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and served as a Sunday school teacher.

Mitchell would later state that he was prompted to join the UPV by scare stories circulating about plans for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the Easter Rising, with a rumour even suggesting that the Irish Republican Army intended to use it as pretext to take control of Newry.

[13] As well as his public declarations in favour of a settlement Mitchell, with the support of the UVF leadership, also held secret talks with Irish republicans.

[14] The first such meeting was with members of the Official IRA in Dublin, with Seán Garland and Cathal Goulding present throughout with Tomás Mac Giolla also briefly in attendance.

[17] Mitchell also held a meeting at Lough Sheelin with Provisional IRA Army Council members Dáithí Ó Conaill and Brian Keenan.

[18] Attempts were made to find common ground in light of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh's Éire Nua policy and Desmond Boal's advocacy of a federal Ireland as a solution to the conflict.

[19] Around this time Mitchell and Volunteer Political Party leader Ken Gibson also met with Ian Paisley at his Martyrs' Memorial Church in a largely unsuccessful attempt to heal rifts that had opened between the paramilitaries and the United Ulster Unionist Council with the UVF feeling that they had been sidelined in the new coalition.

[22] The feud reached a zenith on 7 April when Hugh McVeigh and David Douglas, the UDA members identified by an internal UVF inquiry as responsible for Shaw's death, were abducted and taken to the British Legion Club in Carrickfergus where they were severely beaten.

He reported it as stolen to the RUC at 10.30 a.m.[30] Tiernan maintained that Mitchell and the UVF commander drove the Escort across the Republic of Ireland border down to a Dublin car park without stopping.

[31] The Ford Escort stolen and delivered by Mitchell ended up in Talbot Street, where it exploded at approximately 5.30 p.m. killing a total of 14 people, mostly women, including one who was nine-months pregnant.

[36] He quickly became a member of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and became involved in "conflict transformation" schemes in interface areas of north Belfast, working alongside republicans.

[37] In 1999 Mitchell became involved with former IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney and the two produced a magazine together aiming to discuss the ideological differences and similarities between republicanism and loyalism.

His funeral was attended by PUP leader David Ervine, leading republicans, representatives of Sinn Féin as well as members of the UVF, Red Hand Commando and clergy of various denominations.