FURY OVER EDITOR’ S IRA CONFESSION
Calls for ex-Daily Mirror boss to lose university post as he admits secretly backing terror bombers
A FORMER Fleet Street editor and journalism lecturer could lose his university post after he revealed his unapologetic support for bombing campaigns carried out by the IRA.
Roy Greenslade, who edited the Daily Mirror and held a top job at The Sun, secretly wrote for the republican newsletter An Phoblacht and even provided bail surety for an IRA man accused of involvement in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.
While his republican views first emerged some years ago, he has now ‘come out of hiding’ in an article for the British Journalism Review to say he was in ‘complete agreement about the right of the Irish people to engage in armed struggle’, adding: ‘I supported the use of physical force.’
Last night IRA victims said Mr Greenslade’s position as honorary visiting professor of journalism at City, University of London, was ‘untenable’. The university said it was not aware of the article prior to publication and would now be ‘reviewing’ the content to see whether it ‘needs to take any action’.
The former Guardian columnist retired from a fulltime post at the university, where he lectured in ‘ethics’, in 2018, but he has ‘occasionally’ returned as a guest
‘Come out of hiding’
speaker. In the article, which was published in the Sunday Times, Mr Greenslade, 74, who is now a member of Sinn Fein, said he had first become involved in republican causes shortly after Bloody Sunday in 1972, when paratroopers shot dead 13 demonstrators.
He went on to hold senior roles at The Sun and the Sunday Times, as well as the editorship of the Daily Mirror in 1990 and 1991, but ‘regularly’ contributed to An Phoblacht – contradicting his newspapers which denounced the IRA’s campaigns.
Mr Greenslade guaranteed bail for convicted IRA member John Downey, who was accused of the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, in which four soldiers died.
Downey’s criminal case collapsed when he produced a so-called ‘on the run’ letter, providing assurances that he would not be prosecuted for alleged past crimes. However, a judge at the High Court ruled in 2019 that he was an ‘active participant’ in the bombing. Despite this, Mr Greenslade wrote that all he knows of Downey is his ‘dedication to peace’.
Downey is currently on bail accused of the murder of two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers in Enniskillen in 1972.
Mr Greenslade added: ‘I continued to keep my views on the IRA to myself. However much I believed its tactics to be valid, I could not hope to convince colleagues that the killing of civilians, albeit by accident, was justifiable.’
Mark Tipper, whose brother Trooper Simon Tipper, was killed in the Hyde Park bombing, said: ‘His academic peers should be taking a look at him. He is preaching hatred. You often hear the pen is mightier than the sword and he has preached violence.’
Solicitor Matthew Jury, whose firm McCue & Partners has represented hundreds of families affected by IRA attacks, said of Mr Greenslade’s university position: ‘People have become far too tolerant toward IRA terrorism. If Professor Greenslade openly supported Al Qaeda or Isis [Islamic State] his university position would undoubtedly be untenable. Why should it be different supporting IRA violence?’
Kenny Donaldson, of the South East Fermanagh Foundation victims’ association, which helps about 2,000 families whose relatives were killed in IRA atrocities, including the 1987 Enniskillen bombing, said: ‘As a group that supports victims of terrorist attacks, we are bemused by his comments.
‘John Downey stands accused of the murder of two soldiers. There is no sense he is a peacemaker. He is a committed terrorist with a long career in terrorism.
‘Those with pens can be equally as dangerous as those who pull the trigger and detonate bombs.’
Paul Young, a former soldier and police officer serving in Northern Ireland, questioned
‘Pen is mightier than the sword’
whether Mr Greenslade could have provided sensitive information to the IRA.
He added: ‘It would be incredible if he didn’t given his such strongly held views. I think any university position is now untenable.’
Mr Greenslade’s former editor at The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, said: ‘So while trying to attract readers as editor of the Daily Mirror, Roy Greenslade didn’t care that the IRA would kill a few.’
A spokesman for City, University of London, said: ‘We will review the article and see whether the university needs to take any action.’
Mr Greenslade could not be reached for comment.