In yet another twist, the Boston College IRA tapes director Ed Moloney has revealed that IRA murder victim Jean McConville’s case was never discussed in the Dolours Price recording.
Price a former IRA operative was one of several former members who gave extensive interviews to Boston College researchers for an oral history project.
The British authorities are seeking the Price tapes and Boston College and the researchers have gone to court to prevent that happening but have been overruled so far,
The British government has been seeking the tapes because they allegedly link SInn Fein leader Gerry Adams to the disappearance of Jean McConville an early victim of IRA violence.Adams strongly denies any involvement.
Moloney has submitted an affidavit to Belfast’s High Court and has rejected the claims that Price discussed the McConville case.
He said: “Dolours Price did not once mention the name Jean McConville.
“The subject of that unfortunate woman’s disappearance is not even mentioned. Not once.
“Neither are the allegations that Dolours Price was involved in any other disappearance carried out by the IRA in Belfast, nor that she received orders to disappear people from Gerry Adams or any other IRA figure.
“None of this is in her interviews with Anthony McIntyre.”
McConville was abducted and killed in 1972 on suspicion of being an informer Price has made headlines again this week after alleging that Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams ordered her to drive McConville across the Irish border.
McConville was subsequently murdered by the IRA but her body has never been recovered.
Adams has rejected Price’s claims that he was involved in the atrocity while Moloney has dismissed the claims that the McConville case was mentioned in her interview for Boston College.
Moloney has consistently challenged the police bid to obtain a transcript of the interview with Old Bailey bomber Price.
The interviews are part of a research study called the Belfast Project and are held securely at the Burns Library at Boston College.
The intention was to preserve them for future academic research and participants were told the content of their interviews would be confidential and not be made public until after their deaths.
A press release has re-iterated Moloney’s claims.
It says: “In an affidavit sworn to on September 14th in Belfast High Court, Ed Moloney, Project Director of the Boston College Belfast Oral History Project, for the first time revealed, under oath, that there is absolutely no mention of Jean McConville in Dr. Anthony McIntyre’s interview with former IRA activist Dolours Price.
“And it was for the purpose of investigating the murder of McConville a suspected informant on the IRA, that the Boston College subpoenas instituted by the UK on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, were based.
“Cloaked in the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, MLAT, between the US and the UK., the subpoenas sought, among other things, the interviews of Dolours Price relating to McConville’s murder; a 40 year-old murder that was never investigated after it happened and has lain dormant for years.
“Since last weekend, the British based Sunday Telegraph newspaper and CBS TV news implied or suggested that admissions by Dolours Price to them of involvement in the McConville disappearance were also made in her interviews for the Boston College Belfast Project.
“There was a similar claim, made two years ago, that this admission was presumed in Dolours Price’s Belfast project interviews that began this saga of the Boston College subpoenas. Both claims are false.
“In a vigorous effort to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights; the integrity of future academic research; and the confidentiality and safety of the Belfast Project interviewees , including the personal safety of Lead IRA researcher Dr. Anthony McIntyre who lives in Ireland and is at great risk, both Project Director Ed Moloney and Dr. Antony McIntyre are fighting to have the subpoenas dismissed in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The statement continues: “The Sunday Telegraph/CBS reports conflict with and contradict Moloney’s affidavit lodged in the Belfast High Court which stated that the McConville disappearance was not mentioned in those interviews.
“Consequently, the rationale on which the Boston College subpoenas are based is flawed.
“Fallout from the Boston College subpoenas saga has already resulted in destabilizing the US brokered Northern Ireland Peace Process with accusations and calls for resignations from both sides of the table as well as the compromising of future academic research, and the real threat to Americans’ First Amendment rights.
“The burning question is why the PSNI did not pursue resources closer to home in their investigation rather than attempting to raid the Boston College archive, thereby infringing on Americans’ First Amendment rights and placing Dr. McIntyre’s life in peril and his family in danger.
“The Belfast Project archive should remain confidential without any prejudice to law enforcement inquiries.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.DanOLoingsigh | Oct 07, 2012, 09:22 AM EDT
How could a non-member take a vow?
JaJane | Oct 03, 2012, 10:51 PM EDT
Gerry Adams>remember your Vow> your VOW OF SILENCE,Forver, period~! IRA men and woman took a vow of silence forver. to never say anything concerning the inner wokings of the IRA. GERRY ADAMS KEEP YOUR MOUT SHUT. B.Hughes should have. I blame Moloney for all this.
IrelandNorth | Oct 01, 2012, 08:59 AM EDT
First there was papal bull Laudibiliter, 1167. Then there was the Act of Union, 1800/'01. Then there was a duly debated and passed Irish Home Rule Bill/Act, 1910. Then there was Carsons Covenant, 1912 threatening sedition against a monarch and parliament they swore allegience to? Then there was Carson and Crawford's extra constitutional Ulster Volunteer Force, 1913. The there was Mac Neill's reactionary Irish Volunteers and Connolly's Citizen Army 1913. Then there was the Abrahamic aberration of a war that was not so great, brough to you at theatre of battle near you by avaricious European imperial powers. Then there was Pearse's Proclamation of an independent Irish Republic, 1916. Then there was the Anglo-Irish Treaty and Government of Ireland Act, 1920. Then there was a War of Independence and Civil War, 1920-'22. The rest is hysteria, against which anything Citizen Adams et al did or are supposed to have done pales into insignificance.
seanomelb | Sep 30, 2012, 08:05 PM EDT
Yes you are "petty enough" Dano !! How narrow your point of view is Lynch (I fail to see why such an un-Irish person would use the Gaelic version of his name) the killings would not have taken place if the British and their surrogate petty so called government in Belfast had represented all the people in the statlet. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the negotiating table with Armalites up their collective ar@@es. And pretentious anti Irish fools like you pretending to take the "high moral ground" are found wanting and lack moral fortitude.
DanOLoingsigh | Sep 30, 2012, 08:12 AM EDT
and without GA, and mirror-image killers from the Loyalist side, the GFA (that's the agreement for Irishmen to stop killing their neighbours) wouldn't have been necessary...
DanOLoingsigh | Sep 30, 2012, 08:07 AM EDT
That's 'normally'!!
DanOLoingsigh | Sep 30, 2012, 08:01 AM EDT
Seano - I'm not mormally petty enough to point out that the term you're grasping for is 'hand wringing'...but given your 'name check', happy to make an exception for your good self...
maireadinmelb | Sep 30, 2012, 02:33 AM EDT
Well there is an interesting turn of events, although I thought the sunday telegraph last week said that they had found teh remains of Ms McConville? Either way if teh information sought is not there does that not end the waste of funds paying lawyers on both sides of the atlantic? Brave curtis to pick on the poor british on this page, are you not aware that the IRA have them petrified and are teh worst people to ever live, surely some of them will pop on later tonight to remind you!! :-)
curtisjohnson | Sep 29, 2012, 11:59 PM EDT
Like him or not (personally I'm opposed to his socialism), without Adams the GFA was not possible. By engaging in this witch hunt, the british are displaying their typical level of infidelity and dishonor (perfectly exemplified by their imposition of the penal laws following the Treaty of Limerick).
curtisjohnson | Sep 29, 2012, 11:50 PM EDT
"Release everything five minutes after the Brits do." Exactly. Of course, they've destroyed many of the records of their worldwide atrocities - see the articles this year on Kenya (which included repeated instances of sexual torture, something the british sickos seem to be obsessed with).
audreybolton | Sep 29, 2012, 09:27 PM EDT
Been away on service with my army buddies for a while, but I see the same old anti people are still on this site complaining about the Irish State with their BLAH BLAH. most of whom appear to live abroad. I'm delighted to be back in dear old peaceful Irish Republic (except for the ongoing gang warfare) after some of the things I've seen. At least we're not at war (though some people would like us to be). How are you George, Seano, Seanmor,pilib04 etc. still thundering on?
Gordan Duggan | Sep 29, 2012, 08:38 PM EDT
We have better things to do. The truth will come out about Adams eventually.
Gordan Duggan | Sep 29, 2012, 08:27 PM EDT
Is Ed Moloney trying to put everybody off the scent? Perhaps he is frightened what the Provos will do to him, as apparently "they haven't gone away you know". The truth will out about Adams one day.
kflanigan | Sep 29, 2012, 07:53 PM EDT
Release everything five minutes after the Brits do.
seanomelb | Sep 29, 2012, 06:35 PM EDT
Where are all the hand ringing anti nationalists today!! Fallsers,Dano and their minions.
clevelander | Sep 29, 2012, 04:07 PM EDT
Gerry does not even know the truth anymore. Every time he opens his mouth it is nothing but BS. " we will never go into Leinster House". "We will never enter stormont", and so many more lies. Please open your eyes, he is and was nothing but a stickie in provo clothing.
Tooreenagrena | Sep 29, 2012, 01:48 PM EDT
pilib04: Agree totally with your comments. The violence may have stopped but the propaganda war is going full tilt. Only yesterday read about an Irish language class set up in east Belfast by David Irvines widow and others and this can only be seen as a response to their fear that a revitalised language would further marginalise the Unionists. The conflict is ongoing but by other means.
Nicomax | Sep 29, 2012, 01:21 PM EDT
BC says the tapes are still securely stored deep into the recesses of the Burns Library. Can we be sure they were not moved to an even more secure undisclosed location?
Seanmor | Sep 29, 2012, 10:15 AM EDT
The British authorities aren't the only ones who would like to establish "proof" that Gerry Adams was involved in the alleged muder of of Jean McConville; pro-partitionist, anti-Nationalist politicans in the South would also like to "prove" that Adams was behind her killing.
pilib04 | Sep 29, 2012, 09:57 AM EDT
Dolours Price lies? Gerry Adams tells the truth? We had to have a BC curator tell us something we already knew!!! Good heavens people, don't you understand that the slander and libel against Gerry Adams is jealousy of Sinn Fein's successes?