Boston College asks that IRA tapes case be ended after death of Dolours Price

New filing says her death means no prosecutions now possible

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Boston College has filed a new appeal asking a federal court to throw out an earlier ruling handing over IRA interview tapes to the British government after the death of key witness Dolours Price.

In a statement, Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said Price's death "should bring a close to the pending case regarding the subpoenas for the confidential oral history materials from the Belfast Project."

Dunn stated  the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Criminal Matters invoked by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom "provides that the treaty does not pertain to matters in which the government anticipates that no prosecution will take place. "

"Given that Dolours Price has died, the University believes that the case should be dismissed," Dunn said.

Read More: Actor Stephen Rea carries coffin at ex-wife Dolours Price’s Belfast funeral

British authorities had sought the tapes, part of a Boston College oral history project on the Irish Troubles,  looking for new evidence in old IRA cases.

Price, who had a history of mental illness allegedly named Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams as complicit in IRA activities including the murder of widow and suspected IRA informer Jean McConville in 1972.

However with the death of Price last week in Dublin, Boston College now argues that no case based on the tapes can go ahead.

In the  motion filed on Monday with the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Boston College say the death of Price means no case can be brought.

Read More: Sordid tale of Boston College IRA tapes should now be over - Death of Dolours Price means no prosecution possible for British

The college asked that the previous verdict by  U.S. District Judge William Young ordering the college to turn over interviews with seven other former IRA members be tossed out as the verdict is now moot.

Since 2011, the British government have sought the tapes and had won several court battles.
The interviews were part of the "Belfast Project," an oral history project by Boston College run by journalist Ed Moloney and academic Anthony McIntyre both well-know Gerry Adams critics.

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