The United States Supreme Court has denied an appeal that sought to keep interviews with former IRA members being turned over to the Northern Irish  police.

Last year a court ordered Boston College to hand over portions of recorded interviews with convicted IRA car bomber Dolours Price, as part of a police investigation into the IRA’s 1972 killing of Belfast widow, Jean McConville.

On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal against handing over the transcripts.

The tapes were recorded as part of Boston College's 'Belfast Project', an oral history project which documented the history of Northern Ireland's Troubles.

The interviews were conducted on the basis that no interviews would be released until after the contributor had died.

The project director, Ed Moloney, and his researcher, Anthony McIntyre, had hoped that the Supreme Court would overturn a Boston Federal Court decision to hand the tapes over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In a statement Moloney described Monday’s decision as very disappointing.

“All of those involved in this campaign can be assured that it is not over yet,” Maloney added.

Here's the CBS news piece from 2012 on the Boston College tapes: