Former Fleet Street editor reveals his support for IRA terror campaign

A former Fleet Street editor has “come out of hiding” to explain why he supported the IRA’s terror campaigns, even going so far as guaranteeing bail for John Downey, the IRA man responsible for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.
By Graeme Cousins
Published 28th Feb 2021, 12:34 GMT
Updated 28th Feb 2021, 13:28 GMT
Roy Greenslade, professor of Journalism at London's City University and former newspaper editor, has revealed his support for the IRARoy Greenslade, professor of Journalism at London's City University and former newspaper editor, has revealed his support for the IRA
Roy Greenslade, professor of Journalism at London's City University and former newspaper editor, has revealed his support for the IRA

Roy Greenslade, a former editor of the Daily Mirror and an emeritus professor of journalism at City University, London, offers no apology for his views, saying he was “in complete agreement about the right of the Irish people to engage in armed struggle”.

In an article for the March issue of the British Journalism Review, he wrote: “I came to accept that the fight between the forces of the state and a group of insurgents was unequal and therefore could not be fought on conventional terms. In other words I supported the use of physical force.”

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In his article he explains that as he rose through Fleet Street’s ranks, he married an Irish journalist, Noreen Taylor, and bought a home in Donegal. One of his neighbours was Patrick Doherty, a prominent Sinn Fein activist once named as a member of the IRA army council. They became close friends, but Greenslade decided back in England to keep his views on Ireland to himself.

He wrote: “I needed a wage because I was on the verge of taking a mortgage. Better, then, to button my lip and carry on ... to own up to supporting Irish republicans would result in my losing my job. However much I believed [the IRA’s] tactics to be valid, I could not hope to convince colleagues that the killing of civilians, albeit by accident, was justifiable.”

When he became editor of the Daily Mirror in 1990, he did not feel compromised “because it was the only mainstream newspaper to have consistently urged the removal of British troops from the north of Ireland”.

Prof Greenslade’s defence of IRA bomber Downey infuriated Mark Tipper, brother of Trooper Simon Tipper, one of the soldiers killed in the Hyde Park bombing.

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Mark said: “Professor Greenslade can’t see that a true man of peace cannot also be an unapologetic murderer. Downey spent 37 years fighting to evade and escape justice, never disavowing violence; while Greenslade continues to prove himself both a coward and a fraud.”

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Related topics:IRA