Tears up the article on courage (6)

I believe the answer is:

spirit

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'courage' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'tears up the article' is the wordplay.
'tears' becomes 'rips' ('rip' can be a synonym of 'tear').
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'the article' becomes 'it' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rips' backwards is 'spir'.
'spir'+'it'='SPIRIT'

'on' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for spirit that I've seen before include "Courage, strong drink" , "Courage, determination" , "Distilled liquor" , "Distilled alcoholic drink" , "Ghost or soul" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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