Northern Ireland

Guardian removes three Roy Greenslade articles from website after IRA controversy

Roy Greenslade
Roy Greenslade

THE Guardian newspaper has removed three articles by Roy Greenslade relating to Máiría Cahill from its website.

The decision was taken by the paper's global readers' editor Elisabeth Ribbans, who acts as the media group's internal ombudsman.

She said: "After the readers’ editor completed a review of this and two other articles by the same writer regarding Ms Cahill's case - one of which was also the subject of complaint - all three articles were removed."

The complaint was made after former columnist Mr Greenslade (74), who also worked for the Daily Mirror, Sun and Sunday Times, revealed further details of his support for the IRA's armed campaign and said he had been a past contributor to An Phoblacht.

Ms Cahill said she had been sexually abused by a senior republican from 1997 to 1998, when she was 16, and in subsequent years was subjected to an IRA 'investigation' of her allegations.

A 2014 column written by Mr Greenslade claimed a BBC Spotlight programme about her allegations was "too willing to accept Cahill's story and did not point to countervailing evidence".

Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger stepped down at the weekend from a commission considering the future of the Republic's media industry following the controversy.

Ms Cahill had called on the taoiseach to consider his position.

Mr Rusbridger said Mr Greenslade should have been explicit about his support for the IRA at the time and he and Katherine Viner, who succeeded him in 2015, have apologised to Ms Cahill.