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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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GeorgeDillon | Aug 24, 2011, 02:39 PM EDT

joycean: These places were founded to some extent by Irish, and paid for by Irish workers, but they quickly became the preserve of the "lace curtain" Irish, the kind who really just regretted that they weren't English. You mention Georgetown, a bastion of anglophilia. In fact one of my earliest political actions as a teenager was taking part in a picket of Georgetown in, I think, 1981 when Georgetown was giving Thatcher an award. The toadies at Georgetown may love Ireland, but they love imperialism more.

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antoman | Aug 24, 2011, 02:14 PM EDT

You might get the odd jerk in the north and say you a papist and you not knowing what a papist is like. Say "era boy I'm from Cork". This will confound the islander like ink from a squid. Allowing you to explore the rest of the N.Ireland island.

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bunbegdonegal | Aug 24, 2011, 02:08 PM EDT

Did the Good Friday Peace Accords not provide amnesty for political crimes during the troubles for both sides as a precursor to achieving peace and power sharing? Therefor no matter what is linked truthfully or not to G.A. he shouldn't be charged, right? Of course there are no loyalist political office holders with any blood on their hands? Of course not!

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antoman | Aug 24, 2011, 02:05 PM EDT

N.Ireland is an Island off the north coast of Ireland and can only be reached if you have an Irish accent.

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tocon1941 | Aug 24, 2011, 02:02 PM EDT

Me old Da said "Ireland is a poor country and lacks many things. But there has never been a shortage of informers."

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JamesDempsey | Aug 24, 2011, 01:17 PM EDT

@phlutiephlan "the provisionals....are backed by iran and china with weapons explosives and expertise" what are you talking about? that is the first time ive ever heard that bs, I think that your time at sea while in the navy must have made you a little crazy. Could you please provide use with a reference to back up your crazy claim

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alisaann | Aug 24, 2011, 12:34 PM EDT

i feel, that those involved in the WITCH HUNT should be ARRESTED for what they tried to do....and i'll leave it at that. alisa

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Nicomax | Aug 24, 2011, 12:31 PM EDT

BC may have caused themselves more woe than they anticipated, and should have remained absolutely neutral in all aspects of this project. As for being linked with Opus Dei, that is not likely considering their reasonably liberal Jesuit direction over the decades.

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PhlutiePhan | Aug 24, 2011, 12:24 PM EDT

Go BC. Beat ND. Before losing two, BC won six in a row. As a Navy veteran, who worked with two Brit officers in the Med, I can tell you that the Brits are concerned about the move toward an Irish socialist republic. That is what Gerry Adams is all about. He was a provisional as in Communist just like Hugo. I would not put it past him to orchestrate the ruining of the peace process by leaking info from BC. The provisionals have not gone away and are backed by Iran and China with weapons, explosives and expertise. The current administration is world socialist oriented. You do the math.

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cillowen | Aug 24, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT

the quislings are dangerous - they being like cockroaches in the course of irish history

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roryobrien | Aug 24, 2011, 12:13 PM EDT

Plus ca change...are Moloney and McIntyre regular crawthumpers by any chance? Boston College is RC and probably Opus Dei down to its marrow. This smacks of the attack on the Fenians in the 19th century...."Hell is not hot enough, nor eternity long enough for these evildoers"

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Searlit | Aug 24, 2011, 12:13 PM EDT

How can we have any respect for these (institutions of higher learning)now?

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joycean | Aug 24, 2011, 11:54 AM EDT

I hope BC can win this one. I think GD is wrong about this country's great Catholic universities, BC, ND, Fordham, Georgetown, mostly founded by Irish immigrants. I think those schools are the reason that there are so many prominent Irish Americans.

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petedev | Aug 24, 2011, 11:13 AM EDT

there is no such thing as "unbiased" historical investigation so no point lamenting who conducted this piece of oral history. Secondly, who in Ireland is going to be really shocked or surprised to discover proof that Gerry Adams was up to his neck in the IRA and directly involved in the murder of Jean Mc Conville? some realism please!!

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SeamusMor | Aug 24, 2011, 10:34 AM EDT

If George Dillon always roots against Notre Dame, then he will always be on the side of the losers! GO IRISH!!!

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