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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.

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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 | Jan 29, 2013, 05:35 PM EST

Falls is back with another defeatist pearl of stupidity

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FallsRNat | Jan 29, 2013, 05:20 PM EST

warrepoint i think we can honestly say that while people with your attitude are alive, there is no hope for peace in Ireland or anywhere else in the world, no sane person would hold the same archaic views.

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FallsRNat | Jan 29, 2013, 05:20 PM EST

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FallsRNat | Jan 29, 2013, 05:19 PM EST

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curtisjohnson | Jan 29, 2013, 03:35 PM EST

Puffy, you and the other brit trolls will listen and obey. What's this stuff about the Outback?

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 29, 2013, 02:14 PM EST

Well Gordon Duggan you must have had some interest in the death of Ms Price otherwise you would not have read the above news article and also responded to it.I am sorry to hear Gerry is not welcome ,it seems democracy has still a way to go in your imaginary republic ,after all he is your elected representative and also for the county that this murder took place in.I think that the people of Ireland and those that elected Mr Adams would be very unhappy that there is still a british vein of nationalist oppression, deeply embedded in this partitioned part of Ireland, that you seem to think is a republic.My guess is Mr Adams will be there after all he has signed up to your way of thinking and to that failed entity that you call the Irish republic. slan leat

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seamus60 | Jan 29, 2013, 01:11 PM EST

Bogside, you hardly expect a reply from Early as smacks of desperation are hard to back up. Better Early kept to the normal SF response of silence, the response that replaced their old time tested rebutt of " ye would need to ask them yourself".

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Bogside1234 | Jan 29, 2013, 11:56 AM EST

MickEarly: Please enlighten us all as why former blanketman McIntyre has no credability left and please explain his involvement with McFeely? Where is your proof? Another idiot throwing accusations that have no basis except from where they came to blacken peoples name. Price was crazy, Hughes was a drunk and now McIntyre was involved in a building scam. Not once in the whole issue of McFeely was McIntyre mentioned in any paper or legal document. So please explain yourself.

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Gordan Duggan | Jan 29, 2013, 11:10 AM EST

Warrenpoint, foaming at the mouth! No, I am just angry at the killing of Garda Donoghue and the Garda station I visited this morning had dozens of people lining up to sign the book of condolences. They were angry too. Few of my fellow Irishmen and women cared for Dolours Price and Gerry Adams or their ilk. The security of the Irish Republic (not the "Free State", only a Sinn Fein/IRA supporter refers to it as such) is paramount to us. Gerry Adams better not turn up at Garda Donoghue's funeral as he won't be welcome.

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 29, 2013, 11:07 AM EST

Puffin, you told us yesterday you were leaving the site it was no goooood you said, now your back, with better grammar I might add.We willl be sorry to see you leave though, just like we will be sorry to see all your friends leave, when they take the boat from Larne to Stranraer.Reminds me of a country song here in Ireland "going out the same way we came in".

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MickEarly | Jan 29, 2013, 10:16 AM EST

Nice article Niall, but what you neglect to mention is the decades long vendeta of Ed Moloney against Gerry Adams. That and the fact that McIntyre has no credability left in Ireland as a result of his long time involvement Tom McFeeley corruption in the Dublin property market

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puffin | Jan 29, 2013, 07:10 AM EST

Curtis too many Black Bush last night,I hope my grammatical prowess to-day meets with your high expectations,what right have you,as someone who lives in the Outback, to deny anyone who lives on the island of Ireland the opportunity to express their veiws,just because they .don't coincide with yours,typical SF

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puffin | Jan 29, 2013, 07:10 AM EST

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curtisjohnson | Jan 28, 2013, 08:55 PM EST

Maybe my grammar isn't always so hot either.

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curtisjohnson | Jan 28, 2013, 08:54 PM EST

"warren you choose your opponents well,I am Irish and Unionist and I will not fall into the raciest trap that you have set" Puffy, you're trolling is as bad as your grammer. Please stop visiting the site with your brit spam non-sense.

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