In Jim Herrick's history of The Freethinker, "Vision and Realism" (1982), Herrick commented on McIlroy's "journalistic flair and sense of humour": Within a few months, he was running stories like the one headed "Nun-running Scandal Hits the Vatican", about a nun-running racket from the poverty-stricken Indian state of Kerala to meet a shortage of Catholic nuns.
As a former General Secretary of the National Secular Society he was in a good position to use the Freethinker as a campaigning arm and he did much to gain media publicity for secularist activities.
Tribe's memoir of the period, published by the NSS, notes McIlroy's activities in support of liberalising Sunday: Entertainment, sport, commerce, trade and industry were specifically banned (with exceptions to enable the faithful to attend church).
In the early 1960s the potential organisers of such activities were strangely silent until the NSS, notably through William McIlroy's battles with the Lord's Day Observance Society, galvanised them into supportive action.
[5] McIlroy was secretary of the Committee Against Blasphemy Law, which was founded in August 1977 to protest the trial of the editor and publishers of Gay News.