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Boston College legal battle could mean Gerry Adams goes to trial over IRA

Researchers now fear for peace process, own safety

DARA KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 8:19 AM

Updated Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 10:44 AM

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Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams

Photo by Google Images

Gerry Adams, one of the chief architects of the peace process in the north of Ireland, may soon find himself on trial over his IRA past.

Police in the north want to controversially seize taped interviews with former IRA members that were recorded by Boston College in a project they vowed would never be released to the authorities.

In particular, police want to examine comments made in relation to the Irish Republican Army's killing of Jean McConville, a Belfast mother of 10, in 1972.

Researchers at the college are fighting the request for a handover of the tapes, fearing that the unguarded revelations contained in them could well trigger new attacks against IRA veterans and thereby undermine the peace peace.

McConville, who was a 37-year-old widow, is receiving special attention because of allegations that Adams commanded the IRA unit responsible for ordering her execution. Adams however, denies this.

'Imagine if these interviews are delivered to the police and their contents come out in court,' Ed Moloney, a former Belfast journalist who directed Boston College's oral history project told ABC News. 'There'll be a hue and cry for Gerry Adams' political scalp.'

Moloney and Anthony McIntyre (the former IRA member who collected the interviews) will go to court next Tuesday in Boston in the hope of persuading the judge to prevent the audio tapes from being delivered to Belfast police.

McIntyre originally won the IRA veterans' confidence by insisting their confessions would remain confidential and beyond the reach of British law as long as they lived. However a judge last month ruled that the interviews of one living IRA veteran should be surrendered to the police because she discusses her role in the McConville killing.
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Kilsally | Jan 20, 2012, 11:33 AM EST

occassio - are you saying the McConville family are not entitled to justice for the killing of their mother? Marian Price seems to be the interviewee concerned is currently in jail, having been released early under the GFA but taken to supporting anti-peace dissident IRA groups, holding up speeches for masked men to read out which advocated the killing of Catholic policemen and she may well be tried for having a role in the killing of the soldiers at the barracks in Antrim (and the shooting of the polish pizza delivery men who were deemed legitimate targets as they were supplying the soldiers with pizza)

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IrelandNorth | Jan 20, 2012, 07:01 AM EST

A sinister development is the gifting of Irish state papers to Boston College by Jewish-Irish Min. for Justice, Equality and Defence. Can't help wondering if he and his current Irish coalition government are really donating them to the British government via a U.S. academy? The British Goverment subpoena application is oxymoronic in the context that they didn't releasse papers on the 1916 Rising for 90 years - i.e. three times the norm for historical records. Why? Because of the dubious constitutional grounds upon which rebel leaders were executed.

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canadianirish | Jan 19, 2012, 04:01 PM EST

Ed Moloney is RIGHT! If Boston College weren't prepared to fight to the bitter end like he and his colleague, then why did they get involved in a project like this to begin with??SHAME ON YOU, BOSTON COLLEGE!! Does anyone really believe that the tapes in question haven't disappeared yet? C'mon. I'd love to be in that courtroom next Tuesday.

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Pittsburghkid | Jan 18, 2012, 06:48 PM EST

If you are stupid enough to brag, then you deserve to hang. Let the Irish Catholic Mothers settle the troubles. They are repopulating Northern Ireland into a Catholic country through Pro-Life Beliefs. Thank for letting me say a nice word about the Catholic Mothers of Northern Ireland.

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occassio | Jan 18, 2012, 03:59 PM EST

I know the our government has strong ties to Great Britain. However, when is Attorney General Holder going to wake up to this disgraceful inquiry and give a good reading to the British/Irish agreements? I wont introduce red herrings. I'm concerned only with the facts of this inquiry. Whether or not Mr. Moloney and Mr. McIntyre misunderstood or never thought out carefully the phrase, “to the extent American law allows”, it seems to me that there is a deeper, more troubling issue with the PSNI's request for the tapes: it is the issue of honest intentions versus spurious intent. If interested in the abduction and murder of Mrs. McConville, this inquiry is 40 years delayed, with no past interest and no forthcoming results from the PSNI. Until now. Fact is that Jean McConville is included in the list of Victims in the 1999 Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains agreement that the UK and Ireland signed. The agreement stated that, “Any evidence obtained (directly or indirectly) by the Commission is inadmissible in evidence in any criminal proceedings.” Does this agreement still stand? If so, are the (PSNI) British Government and Attorney General Holder taking this into account?

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SeamusMartin | Jan 18, 2012, 03:27 PM EST

No more, no more. Let it be!

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jennywrennz | Jan 18, 2012, 02:54 PM EST

Let sleeping dogs lay! A promise was given to not disclose interviews while anyone on them was living. If Ireland is to ever move on from all the atrosities that happened then these tapes, which are the other side of History should be left till everyone on them is dead. Then and only then can the true account of events be added to History. Who are we to judge! We weren't there! The person involved was instrumental in the peacemaking. Let sleeping dogs lay!

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SeamusMor | Jan 18, 2012, 11:38 AM EST

Fiat justitia ruat caelum!

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ripley838 | Jan 18, 2012, 11:31 AM EST

And if Gerry Adams is charged, will members of the SAS, Margaret Thatcher, the UDF, the Rev. Paisley also take places in the dock?

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