NI newspaper review: Death of Harry Gregg

Front page of the Daily Mirror

The death of former Manchester United and Northern Ireland goalkeeper Harry Gregg dominates the front pages on Tuesday morning.

'Farewell To A Humble Hero' is the headline in the Daily Mirror, which recalls his bravery in the 1958 Munich air disaster in which he pulled passengers from the burning wreckage of the plane.

The crash claimed the lives of 23 people, including eight Manchester United players as the team returned from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade.

Sir Bobby Charlton, who was one of the players Gregg helped save, has led the tributes and said "he will always be remembered as a heroic figure".

The Belfast Telegraph devotes nine pages to the story, with its Sports Editor Jim Gracey describing Gregg as the "bravest and most principled" man he ever encountered saying "he never lost his common touch or forgot his Coleraine roots".

Elsewhere, the newspaper features the results of a poll which claims 29% of people in Northern Ireland would support Irish unity, but 52% would back remaining in the UK.

It suggests 73% of those who define themselves as other - neither nationalist nor unionist - would support remaining in the UK.

The papers says the results are based on interviews with more than 2,000 people over a six-week period, in a study led by the University of Liverpool.

Michelle O'Neill has been the vice-president of Sinn Féin since 2018

The Irish News on its front page leads with Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill's comments that dissident republicans are planning a bomb attack on a party member's car.

It comes after the deputy first minister said last week that she and Gerry Kelly were under threat.

She said police told her that the New IRA intends to use an under-car device in an attack "anywhere in the north" and condemned the threat as "disgraceful".

Elsewhere, the paper includes a full page article from Health Minister Robin Swann who says "suicide is a preventable tragedy" and that he is pledging to make prevention a top priority.

He says that "suicide is more prevalent in urban areas", but "rural dwellers have also experienced particular challenges in recent years including an ageing population and a decline in farm incomes".

"We need to ensure everyone knows help is available - and back that message up with enhanced services on the ground," he adds.

Robin Swann has penned an article in the Irish News on suicide prevention

As well as focusing on the death of Harry Gregg, the News Letter also highlights comments from the former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt on its front page.

It reports, along with the Daily Mirror, that as Mr Nesbitt launched a new report on sectarianism he compared unionism to a frog sitting in a pot of water unaware of the threat to its life as the temperature gradually rises.

He also claims that when he said he would give a preference vote in an election to the SDLP in 2017, he was "figuratively, burned out of office by some rather sectarian reaction from the unionist community".

Elsewhere, the newspaper says the parents of a Fermanagh-born man who had a a gambling addiction will be at Stormont on Tuesday to raise awareness of a "silent killer" in Northern Ireland.

It says Peter and Sadie Keogh's son Lewis took his own life after his addiction to betting became all-consuming in 2013, and he had run up debts of more than £50,000.

The Keoghs will be joined at Stormont's Long Gallery on Tuesday by other parents bereaved as a result of gambling for the Gambling With Lives charity event.