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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Sordid tale of Boston College IRA tapes should now be over - Death of Dolours Price means no prosecution possible for British

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Sordid tale of Boston College IRA tapes should now be over - Death of Dolours Price means no prosecution possible for British

Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 07:20 AM

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Dolours Price

In Friday's Boston Globe newspaper, columnists Kevin Cullen states that he believes that the death of Dolours Price, the dissident Republican, meant that the issue of the Boston College IRA tapes was now over.

Price died of a suspected overdose in her Dublin home. She had suffered from mental health issues for many years.

The British government had been seeking the tapes in an attempt to link Gerry Adams to the murder of Jean McConville, an alleged IRA informer who was killed in Belfast in 1972.

Read More: Religion is the least important aspect of Irish people’s lives, survey offers holistic view of life in Ireland

Price had apparently fingered Adams on the tapes but what use the word of a clearly ill woman would have been was never explained.

Cullen’s point was well made; the death of Dolores Price means she cannot give evidence against Gerry Adams in court which was the main reason why the British government wanted to seize the tapes.

The tapes were part of the Boston College Project which was intended to be an oral history of The Troubles but quickly turned into a Gerry Adams witch hunt led by project director journalist Ed Moloney who clearly holds Adams in great contempt for daring to sign up to the peace process.

Despite the fact that the Boston College project was allegedly an historical one aimed at creating an oral an archive of The Troubles the British government decided that their long time vendetta against Gerry Adams could be well served by seizing the tapes.

Read More: Boston College Irish tapes - the truth about Ed Moloney’s book and letting the cat out of the bag

Cullen pointed that without Price the tapes are no longer useful to the British and they and the U.S. government should now reach an agreement that no further tapes will be sought.

The timing is perfect as I wrote here last week. The new Secretary of State, John Kerry, is on the record as opposing the British attempt to gain access to the tapes. Now is the perfect time for Kerry to make clear to the British that they should give up their efforts to get the tapes.

The episode has been a sordid one from the beginning with the initial efforts to get Adams by the researchers followed by the British government efforts to use historical records to cause problems in the peace process.

There is enough death and destruction attached to The Troubles to last several lifetimes. Cherry picking cases or fomenting historical feuds is a waste of time

With the death of Dolours Price this episode can now be brought to an end. Hopefully John Kerry will take the opportunity to do so in no uncertain terms with the British.

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seanomelb | Feb 04, 2013, 06:32 PM EST

I certainly do for arguing with you and your false logic.

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FallsRNat | Feb 03, 2013, 06:49 PM EST

you need to see a shrink

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seanomelb | Feb 03, 2013, 05:25 PM EST

My emotions are far from clouded Fallsers. I call a spade a spade.If you wish to condone any innocent people which you may have killed as a squaddie of her majesty that's you sad call. But don't complain about the officer class who you served alongside,afterall you slavishly followed their commands. I would hardly call it "pontificating" when I bring you face to face with your hypocrisy and your weasel words you use to justify the unjustifiable.

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Meanolgrouch | Feb 02, 2013, 08:24 PM EST

It's a tossup who's drunkest on ego, Stevie or RatBoy. Must be beyond their ability to conceive of their own fallibility. Just because you two say something doesn't make it true. You're both traitors to the best interests of Ireland. Kiss all the Brit arse you want - it would make me retch.

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FallsRNat | Feb 02, 2013, 07:25 PM EST

who said anyhting about being dejected, you need to wake up, i've never regretted anything i've done, condemnation of the killing of innocents you so loudly decry, cuts both ways or do you condone only 'british' murders, you can insult me anthing you like, but it is easy to sit 16000 miles away ponitificating on things you don't understand or have lived through, so read the posts again

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seanomelb | Feb 02, 2013, 06:01 PM EST

So you are dejected by been conned into been a common footsoldier.You made it personal and I replied to your genealogical ramblings.You can slice your bread any way you like Fallsers,but at the end of the day you were a British footsoldier who killed or condone the killing of innocent people by you fellow squaddies. BTW you were not "Pressed"into the BA by the officers you are so disdainful of you volunteered to serve alongside them.Been sorry after event is a cop out.

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FallsRNat | Feb 02, 2013, 04:26 AM EST

seano - the difference between us is that you allow your emotions to cloud your judgement, if you look at my analysis of the current NI situation, then what i said is true, the analysis of most irish political thinkers since the GFA is that the brits would do anything to keep PIRA on board, i'm afraid as in almost everything else, they have totally misread the situation. Their main aim was from Mo Mowlem's visit to the Maze to the kidgloves attitude to the ongoing flag protests is keep the UDA on board at all costs, they have always contained an acceptable level of violence within the 6 counties, with sporadic mainland bombings. I was there mate after the Shankill bombing when the UFF were running wild, with a lethal intensity, we were on the edge of an insanity that could have easily spiralled out of control into a full blown civil war. It is thanks to people such as John Hume, David Trimble et al who brought us back from the brink. I don't dishonour my family & as an irishman you should not that blood is always thickie than water, I knew members of PIRA, one was even in the guard of honour at my wedding, like everything else, you try not to make everything personal, did PIRA actively target me, no of course not. British soldiers are just ordinary grunts like me & you, they don't make the rules, that's why the leaders survive, wine/dine & fete each other, whilst the common footsoldiers are lying in cemetaries throughout the UK to be mourned by their families & friends, oh & as a political weapon by our so called leaders from time to time.

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seanomelb | Feb 01, 2013, 09:29 PM EST

I wonder fallsnat if my father new your great uncle in the curragh. Most Irish can claim rerlatives who were involved in the struggles. Bur you Sir dishonour your relatives and they would probably turn in their graves if they read your anti nationalist scribblings you are a disgrace to your forebearers and also a british squaddie who probably murdered women and children in some foreign lands

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FallsRNat | Feb 01, 2013, 12:29 PM EST

Tony - Adams political, unlikely that he would be the top agent in PIRA, whilst he accepted in principal the armalite & ballot box, he like Finucane were pushing for more political ideals to come to the fore, the brits prefer dealing with more military minded individuals, whoever, it is, will destroy the remaining republican ethos as only the untouchables are left.

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FallsRNat | Feb 01, 2013, 10:27 AM EST

my family history - let's get it straight, great grandfather IRB, grandfather IRA 1916, 1 great uncle interned Curragh camp, other para at Arnhem WW2, father & uncles IRA 50/60s, me Official SF & british army soldier, worse thing to happen to Ireland, PIRA 1968, now no hope, no unification in my lifetime, if unity is repatriation of 1.2m brits, i can't accept, over time the essence of a UI became lost in an ever increasing sectarian conflict by all sides.

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seanomelb | Feb 01, 2013, 01:47 AM EST

Curtis he was a squaddiewho murdered women and children. He is dog ignotant and needs to be ignored. Afailed human being God bless him.

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Scouse Tony | Feb 01, 2013, 01:28 AM EST

FallRNat in your use of the term asset did you mean politically or in a Steaknife sense.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 31, 2013, 09:50 PM EST

@fallstherat “You have to admire the brits, ulster still belongs to the UK” So a member of the security council (with all manner of weapons, funding, and intelligence at its disposal) is able to occupy the northeast corner of a tiny neighbor by creating a filthy supremacist statelet – yeah that’s really admirable. It’s like admiring a mass murdering felon. Of course, weren’t you a filthy squaddie, rat boy?

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Meanolgrouch | Jan 31, 2013, 08:23 PM EST

Falls, why is it that when I see your name it always strikes me first as FallsNRAT? Is your middle name Willard by chance? And no, we don't have to admire the Brits. Or any of their Stockholm Syndrome rats either, for that matter. And we don't. Tough luck, old chap. I've got a mini Beagle dog that's more Irish than you are. By adoption, but at least she's no traitor. I baptized her in the name of St. Francis and gave her a good Irish name, so she doesn't know any different. In fact, she's so well converted she might chomp on BA snakes in the grass. Should I bring her with me this summer? Beagles are scent hounds, after all.

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 31, 2013, 08:14 PM EST

FallsR I do not trust you any more either.I think you could be anglo-norman, torytory, gordon duggan , audrey bolton and risteard retard, maybe even STEVENSTAR that UppeR nut CASE.Now why would I think that. Must be my Irish sense of humour.

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