Major university has nothing to say about professor who is 'delighted to say' she heard IRA bomb which killed four people

The University of British Columbia in Canada was asked about the case of Siobhan McElduff, an Irish humanities academic who had declared on Twitter she was "delighted to say" she personally heard the bomb which killed Lord Mountbatten.

Two children – Paul Maxwell (15) and Nicholas Knatchbull (14) – and Doreen Knatchbull (83) were also killed in the IRA's 1979 boat bombing off the Sligo coast, while three others were injured but lived.

Dr McElduff began making posts on the matter last Monday in reaction to a Twitter user who had lamented Lord Mountbatten's murder.

Professor McElduff said: "I am delighted to say that A. I heard the explosion and B. We were raided by the Guards the day after in case my dad might have had something to do with it."Personal connections to the aristocracy as [sic] so important."

When some Twitter users noted that two children died alongside Mountbatten (who had been a WWII naval commander, and was later the last British viceroy of India), Prof McElduff said: "Wonder how many children died during the partition of India?

"Or how many Irish children Mountbatten abused?… Jesus, I didn't blow him up. I'm just not unhappy to have heard the explosion."

She later told the News Letter: "Nothing about the bomb going off delighted me, but I'm not sorry to have heard it. It was a major historic event."

You can read the original article detailing her comments here.

A specialist in ancient Rome, Dr McElduff is a relative of Aidan McAnespie, a 24-year-old Sinn Fein man shot dead by a soldier in 1988 in what was ruled to be a case of manslaughter.

The University of British Columbia has past form in chastising its own figures for their social media use.

Back in summer 2020, amidst the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and riots, it cut ties with the chairman of its board of governors, Mike Korenberg.

This happened after a group called UBC Students Against Bigotry trawled Korenberg's Twitter profile and posted screenshots of tweets, written by others, that Korenberg had "liked".

These tweets largely consisted of people voicing support for President Trump, while some voiced criticism of BLM.

One of the tweets complained of by the group consisted solely of Donald Trump Jnr wishing his father a happy birthday.

Korenberg then quit his post, saying "I wholeheartedly apologize... I will take care in the future to be more responsible and to maintain my full support of diversity".

The university said Korenberg left because he "appeared to support regressive voices online" and "this has been deeply hurtful to members of our community and that UBC has zero tolerance for racism".

When the News Letter contacted the university to ask if it wished to react to Dr McElduff's bomb tweets, it replied: "UBC will decline comment."

The News Letter asked if the university has reconsidered its policy of castigating / disciplining people over social media activity since the Korenberg affair.

This question went unanswered and unacknowledged.

More from this reporter:

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• Racism complaint: DUP peer and free speech activist hit out at idea of classic literature being pulled from Northern Ireland's curriculum because some people take offence at racism described inside

• Transgenderism: News Letter deep dive into school survey data shows the percentage of Northern Irish 10 and 11-year-olds saying they’re neither male nor female

• Northern Irish public asked to voice their views on a government plan to hand free tampons to people 'irrespective of their gender identity'

• After another IRA-linked event attended by Sinn Fein, this SDLP man says: It’s time to choose... SF can be democrats or IRA apologists: but not both