Liam Neeson is facing further backlash after his controversial interview featured in the UK edition of The Independent last month.
The Irish actor had described “wanting to kill a black person” following a friend’s rape a number of years ago. He later denied being racist and said he was ashamed of his comments.
Queen’s University Belfast has now reportedly removed all mention of the actor from their prospectus and promotional material after featuring him in the 2018 and 2019 ‘heritage and heroes’ section.
BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show reports that Neeson, who received an honorary degree from the university in 2009, was due to be featured again in the 2020 materials but “an instruction was given for him to be removed”.
On @StephenNolan now –
Liam Neeson has been erased from from the latest Queen's undergraduate prospectus.
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✉️ [email protected] pic.twitter.com/ucmRK9ecjU— The Nolan Show, BBC (@BBCNolan) March 26, 2019
The university hasn’t commented on the decision so far.
Neeson spoke out on Good Morning America following the controversy and said, “I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago when a very dear friend of mine was brutally raped and I was out of the country and when I came back, she told me about it.
“I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out. I asked her did she know the person, and his race. She said he was a black man.”
“If she’d said he was Irish, or a Scot, or a Lithuanian, it would have had the same effect. I was trying to… stand up for my dear friend in this terrible medieval fashion.”
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