Ben Lowry: Jim McDowell was a giant of Northern Ireland journalism who had a particular contempt for criminals who plagued loyalist working class areas
Jim McDowell’s funeral is today at St George’s church in Belfast.
(To read Ben Lowry’s main column about local government commissioners who do not understand free speech click here)
One of the giants of Northern Ireland newspaper history will be remembered at one of its most beautiful old churches.
On page 14, we carry a report that Jim wrote for us on our 275th birthday in 2012 (founded in 1737, we are the world’s oldest English language daily – this autumn we turn 289, ie enter our 290th year).
When Jim sent his essay, he reflected on how good it had been to be “part of the oul’ News Letter and Century Newspapers – which was so much a part of me for 17 years”.
He said that he hoped that someone had “paid a handsome tribute to Capt. Bill somewhere along the line. He was in the same mould as Cowan – but both great newspaper men”.
‘Capt. Bill’ was Captain OWJ Henderson, whose family owned the News Letter from the 1800s until the late 1980s, and who managed the paper at the end of that period.
Jim then made a very Jim observation: “I fought with OWJ almost every day of my life in there: but he still made me editor of one of his newspapers, the Sunday News.”
Jim’s career in papers took off in the 1970s and 80s heydays. It was always stimulating to talk to such a huge personality. He put a spotlight on terrorists, with a particular contempt for loyalist crooks who did such damage to the working class communities from which he came.
Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor