Biography of Senator George Mitchell

Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell has had a rough ride since being appointed chairman of Northern Ireland's latest stumbling attempt to find a political solution, the all-party talks convened in June 1996 after elections to a forum. His role was almost over before it had begun. Unionist delegates accused him of bias towards Irish nationalism and threatened to boyott the talks unless he was replaced.

Mitchell was born in 1925 into one Irish family in the United States and then adopted by another. He has long been involved in Washington's Irish policy and in 1995 became President Bill Clinton's special adviser on Irish economic affairs.

He retired from the U.S. Senate in 1994 after leading the Democrat majority there. He had represented the northern state of Maine.

In 1993 he joined Irish Americans such as Ted Kennedy, Tom Foley and Daniel Moynihan in urging paramilitary groups to lay down their arms. But he has been sceptical of British government policy as well.

As a young man, he served in U.S. military counter-intelligence in west Berlin.

The report he produced in January 1996 tried to steer a middle position on the most divisive issue blocking all-party talks, the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. The Mitchell Commission said weapons must eventually be decommissioned but said it was not 'realistic' to expect this to happen before all-party talks.

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