A leading Ulster politician has claimed senior IRA members could be implicated in the Boston Tapes case.

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell made the claim after a US court ordered Boston College to hand over top secret interviews with convicted Old Bailey car bomber Dolours Price.

The College must now present police with the recordings by its researchers of oral history project talks with Price.

The British government wants the tapes and will now have access to them after an appeals court in the US rejected an effort to stop their release.

Campbell said: “This is a step closer to establishing if there is information in the tapes that might be of assistance to the authorities in
Northern Ireland.

“This could lead to the investigation of many senior personnel within the IRA and other groups about matters they were involved in, and if that is the case it would be welcome.”

Price, her sister Marian, and current Sinn Fein politician Gerry Kelly, a former junior Minister in Belfast, were arrested for a 1973 bombing of the Old Bailey in London.

The explosion injured more than 200 people while reports claim it likely caused another person’s death of heart failure.

The Price sisters and Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, but later released.

The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling ensures that the interview with Dolours Price will be handed over to police next month.

The Boston College in Massachusetts is still attempting to quash a broader order for other materials from its project.

Belfast Project participants have argued that the interviews were intended to remain confidential until their deaths.

Ulster police investigating the 1972 killing of Belfast mother of ten Jean McConville by the IRA have demanded the recordings.

Boston College did not appeal against a district court order last year to turn over the Price interviews.

However project director Ed Moloney and former IRA member Anthony McIntyre launched personal appeals which have now been turned down.