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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Boston College played major role in witch hunt against Gerry Adams - Hired anti-Adams researchers to lead oral history project

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Boston College played major role in witch hunt against Gerry Adams - Hired anti-Adams researchers to lead oral history project

Posted on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 06:02 PM

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There is something rotten in Boston College where the latest push by Northern Irish authorities to gain access to oral histories by IRA participants has moved up a notch.

The Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen correctly identified this latest effort as a witch hunt against Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in an attempt to link him to a 1972 murder in Belfast.

The college has been vainly protesting that it will not reveal the oral histories to feds, acting on behalf of the British government but they have very little credibility on this issue.

It appears obvious now that the oral histories were given under a guarantee of full confidentiality and for use by future historians but that was not worth the paper it was written on.

The recollections of Brendan Hughes, one of the IRA men in the oral history project, formed a major basis of the 2010 book by author Ed Moloney called ‘Voices from the Grave.”

Moloney, a former journalist in Northern Ireland, was director of the Belfast project for Boston College and apparently the rule of confidentiality or immediate release of information from sources did not apply to him.

Moloney has written repeatedly in hostile fashion about Adams a fact that BC conveniently ignored when they hired him.

In his book Moloney quoted Hughes as saying that Adams was certainly in the IRA and ordered many killings. That was later the basis of a major documentary on Irish television and worldwide stories about the case.

The story broke around the time Adams was running for a seat in the Irish parliament and was widely viewed as an attempt to damage him.

Professor Thomas Hachey, executive director of the Irish Studies program at BC, helpfully wrote the introduction for Moloney’s book very much tying the college into its conclusions.

Moloney clearly felt he was entitled to quote from the confidential archives at length in what seemed a vain attempt to link Adams to the 1972 Jean McConville murder and Boston College went right along with it.

It gets worse, Moloney’s lead researcher and interviewer was Anthony McIntyre, a leading dissident republican who also had a deep loathing for Gerry Adams and conducted the interview with Hughes.

Was this the kind of unbiased historical perspective and information gathering that Boston College should have insisted upon?

No, of course not, right from the beginning the aim was clearly to try and get negative information on Gerry Adams and Boston College played a full role, however unwittingly or wittingly perhaps.

Now it has landed them in a hornet’s nest worth of trouble. No doubt seeing what Moloney and McIntyre were able to put together, some key security figure in Northern Ireland wanted their attempt to get at Adams too, and settle some scores.

They now have the US Attorneys office doing their bidding and seeking to get all tapes released, from Republican sources.

What exactly the Obama administration is doing aiding and abetting this witch hunt is material for another column

Boston College is now spluttering that they should be allowed hold the tapes confidential—even though they allowed the release of Hughes’s testimony to Moloney.

In an ironic twist Moloney and McIntyre wrote an op- ed in the Boston Globe Tuesday saying release of the tapes could damage the peace process.

Stable door and bolted horse come to mind. Boston College certainly have a case to answer and have shown how not to do a professional oral history of the Troubles-- and endanger the peace process in the process.

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seamus60 | Oct 09, 2012, 07:38 PM EDT

Sir peter. The N. Ireland authorities now consist of Mc Guinness and others claiming to be republicans. Yet we have seen the re-introduction of Internment and Gerrymandering being enforced against republicans and Nationalists. Not exactly the just and fair society people expected. How would anything concerning the charging of Adams in relation to anything during the troubles bring down or even damage the peace process ? The people he has around him now would be more interested in his job.

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 06:49 PM EDT

Roryobrien. Perhaps you should look up Mackers before you give such an opinion. He hides nothing from his republican past. Nor does he moan about all his years in a british prison as a result of his republicanism. Unlike Gerry whose life has been an absolute hell because every one has been out to get him. LOL

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 06:31 PM EDT

Just another article full of baloney and not written by maloney. Its as crooked as Sir peters take on Adams. The same Adams who is so crooked they`ll have to screw his coffin into the ground when the time comes. The dirty old brits and their dirty tricks always at play to try and get Adams. LOL. Had they the brits ever wanted Adams gone he`d have been gone quicker than Jean Mc Conville or any of the other dissapeared. Now we have another big conspiricy theory with a couple of journalists and a collage going to do what the might of britian couldn`t achieve in 40 years. How can any of you Adams fans be so naieve ?. Had Adams not had protection from many quarters including the brits his name would have been long lost in the list of good republicans who died for the cause. Lets not forget their outlook on him long before the peace process " this is a man we can do business with" and they, him and Martin were doing it well before anyone else in the movement knew. The brits knew Adams was sheltering a brother peadophile and didn`t jump on yet another golden opportunity to bring him down. The RA was practically wiped out in the early eighties through the use of supergrass`s. With most members having the word of one supergrass against them recieving lengthy sentences. Yet Adams and Mc Guiness had statements against them from most of the supergrass`s but not even arrested. The most shocking thing about all of this is Niall`s reluctance to take the long term signifigiance on journalism itself to task. Who now will be so willing at putting pen to paper in order that the truth prevails for the history books. The wider implications, A warning shot over the heads of possable future whistle blowers returning from conflict all over the world. Why would the brits wait till the BC got their hands on these tapes when they could have got them in Belfast. An international audiance makes for a warning shot that few won`t hear.

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patriot | Sep 12, 2011, 07:01 PM EDT

Screw all anti Irish

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FallsRNat | Sep 07, 2011, 02:35 PM EDT

i would have thought that the answer would be 1)Mrs McConville's family, 2) The PSNI who should be investigating this murder 3) The Irish people both North & South who have long suspected that Gerry was up to his neck in the long war, but always shrouded himself in his 'own' fantasist self denial. The big problem his has is that it isn't easy to dismiss Hughes testimony - this PIRA man was & can never be considered a stooge of the brits, no PIRA man will side with Adams at the expense of 'Darkie's good name', this man was the o/c in the Maze. the trouble for GA is that he likes to belive he is untouchable, he's wrong.

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sirpeter | Aug 26, 2011, 07:07 PM EDT

The question is who gains if these tapes become public.1/The Loyalists.2/The Irish Government.3/The British Government.4/The RIRA ect.All the hard work done by those involved in the peace process in which Mr.Niall O'Dowd played no small part in getting Gerry Adams into the states and the dirty tricks that were used to try and keep Gerry out.You can build something good from peace provided it's a fair and just society.Something is rotten when the Northern Irish authorities want to risk the peace process.I don't care if Gerry Adams isn't as pure as the driven snow.I don't know what he might be guilty of.But he was an important part of a process that has saved alot of life's.He's 63 now.A civil rights supporter.Interned in 1972.Banned from walking the Queens highway in England.Plus all England.Seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by loyalists.Ban on the media broadcast of his voice by Margaret Thatcher.Freedom of speech,Yeah right!!On the run half the time sleeping here there and everywhere and living on hand outs.Not exactly looking out for himself was he.It amazing what a barman can make of himself.Now they want to finish him for good.

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joycean | Aug 26, 2011, 09:36 AM EDT

Oral history is hearsay. It does not, or should not, be expected to rise to the level of truth expected in judicial proceedings. My father's parents were impovished Irish immigrants, but my father received a full scholarship to BC, and his education meant my siblings and I grew up in a middle class environment instead of in Boston's slums. We all attended Catholic schools,graduated from college, and had professional careers. The children of the Famine Irish succeeded in this country because of the all-encompassing social system those immigrants created, including those universities. Jamie is correct: when Irish-Americans call themselves "Irish" or "Irish-American," they do not mean they wish they were Irish.They mean they are proud to be Americans of Irish descent. If the Irish don't understand that, the problem is that American English and Irish English are different English language dialects: different in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling, as well as pronunciation.

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seanomelbourne | Aug 25, 2011, 06:45 PM EDT

I wish I could find "my old alarm clock" it had many uses..The plastic Irish are out in force today they keep on swallowing the same old british propaganda line. A bunch of witch hunters toeing their british masters line.

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Realist | Aug 25, 2011, 06:15 PM EDT

The Provisional IRA surrenders its weapons and disarms at the behest of the British Unionist majority, Sinn Fein sign up to a partitionist solution and now help administer the very British rule they once sought to subvert, support for a 'united Ireland' has dropped every year since the Belfast Agreement was signed - with the figure now at an all time low of 19% (52% of Roman Catholics opting to remain within the UK). Now Boston College helps further discredit the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein. The truth will out folks and this only the beginning....tick, tock, tick, tock.

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pilib04 | Aug 25, 2011, 05:44 PM EDT

Boston College has historically had an anti-Irish Freedom attitude and reputation. The question should be, why would Republicans cooperate on a project that involved BC. This was a mistake. BC is the College that wanted to give Bloody Thatcher an honorary Doctorate. BC should be renamed British College!

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Kilsally | Aug 25, 2011, 11:40 AM EDT

JamesDempsey @phlutiephlan is absolutely correct - Sinn Fein are revolutionary socialists / marxists / communists who have ties to marxist FARC guerillas in Columbia (columbia 3 anyone?), Fidel Catro, Colonel Gaddafi, Che Guevera and a host of others. Sean Garland and others from Sinn Fein: The Workers Party (Official IRA as opposed to Gerry Adam`s Provisional IRA offshoot) are also in the process of being extradited by the USA for involvement in the communist North Korean US Super Dollar plot. Google it.

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Kilsally | Aug 25, 2011, 11:36 AM EDT

bunbegdonegal - no the peace process did not provide amnesty for any Republican or Loyalist terrorist - it provided an early release scheme where perps were released on licence / parole (in some cases only serving 2 years of life sentences). People can and have still been convicted of past crimes - however if the crimes were pre 1998 Good Friday Agreement the perp can avail of the early release scheme (case in point current dissident Republican Gerry McGeough recently jailed with hefty sentence but will be out in months). So who is going to tell Jean Mcconvilles family that the police shouldn`t be trying to solve the murder of their mother?

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maireadinmelb | Aug 25, 2011, 06:21 AM EDT

Again, Justice goes one way!!

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johhnyb | Aug 25, 2011, 05:52 AM EDT

Gerry is innocent. Just ask him.

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seanomelbourne | Aug 24, 2011, 06:30 PM EDT

Nice article Niall,an expose on integrity or lack thereof.What is in BC should stay in BC.Maloney writes a rip roaring yarn preying on the suffering of others.He's well known for his plastic Irish stance.

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