Boston College in Court over IRA Tapes

A US appeals court has heard arguments over recorded interviews with former members of the Irish Republican Army.

The interviews were part of an oral history project at Boston College.

Northern Ireland police probing the IRA’s 1972 killing of a Belfast woman want access to the interviews for their investigation.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks the BBC’s Andy Martin, who was at the Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

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Marco Werman: As Somalia proves, overcoming a history of violence is often not a smooth process. Another reminder of that comes from a US federal appeals court in Boston. The court is considering whether to force the release of interviews related to the years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, also known as The Troubles. The interviews were conducted by a former IRA member for an oral history project at Boston College. The identity of the interviewees was supposed to be kept secret, but police in Northern Ireland want access to the tapes. The BBC’s Andy Martin was at the court in Boston this morning.

Andy Martin: What is on these tapes are frank and candid admissions by paramilitaries about what they did during The Troubles. We know from some of the other tapes that they have spoken about operations they were involved in, and they have named names of the people that they conducted these operations with in Belfast, and of course, at the end of these operations many, many people died. So they are extremely controversial. They are extremely sensitive and to put them in the public domain will be I supposed extremely interesting, but of course, that will lead to all sorts of political and indeed possible criminal ramifications in terms of court cases in the future.

Werman: Now two of the people involved in the oral history project at Boston College, a former IRA prisoner turned writer, Anthony McIntyre and award winning journalist, Ed Moloney, have argued that handing over the tapes could put their lives at risk. Is there one particular interview at the heart of all this that the police service of Northern Ireland is trying to get ahold of?

Martin: The one interview that they’re trying to get ahold of is that of Dolores Price. She was part of the IRA unit that blew up London’s best-known court, the Old Bailey, in 1973. She and her sister, Marian Price, who’s currently in jail in Northern Ireland under suspicion of being involved in dissident republicanism, were part of that IRA and that they were close to Jerry Adams. They have since fallen out with Gerry Adams and with Shin Fen over the risk that that party has taken during the course of the peace process. But the police are very keen to hear what Dolores Price has said about her involvement in the IRA, about her relationship to Gerry Adams, and about the rule about role Shin Fen played during the years of The Troubles.

Werman: Right, so its the police service of Northern Ireland that wants to obtain the transcripts of these tapes or the tapes themselves. Boston College through its oral history, The Belfast Project, has told the former players during The Troubles in Northern Ireland that BC would not release these transcripts until they were dead. So, who now is trying to stop their release?

Martin: Well they did give out guaranty and the difference in all of this is that while Brendan Hughes’ tapes were released after his death, Dolores Price actually effectively outed herself. She told a Belfast newspaper that she had taken part in the project, and as a result of that Boston College says that it does not have the ability to protect her any further because she had admitted it herself.

Werman: Okay, it’s this particular interview that the police service of Northern Ireland really want. Why are they so interested in the case of former IRA member Dolores Price?

Martin: Well firstly because she is alive and they feel that there would be evidential value in having that tape. They’re also interested because she allegedly has talked about the disappeared, she has allegedly told a Belfast newspaper that she actually drove perhaps the best known of the disappeared to meet her death, a lady called Jean McConville, a mother of 10 abducted in 1972 in west Belfast, and taken, and shot and secretly buried just south of the Irish border. And they want to investigate that.

Werman: And that woman who disappeared apparently according to the IRA and according to some sources, she had given information on the IRA to police.

Martin: Yes, she was accused by the IRA of having been an informer and passing information to the British security forces. However, that has since been dismissed by an independent investigation, but the IRA still maintain that Jean McConville had been an informant and the IRA still maintain that they had therefore the right to shoot her.

Werman: What is the stance of Boston College on all this?

Martin: Boston College is mounting its own appeal that will be heard next month. Their position is that they cannot offer Dolores Price any anonymity, that they are appealing the subpoenas, which is trying to obtain seven other tapes which PS and I believe to be pertinent to the disappeared. They are going to fight that in June. Boston College and their former employees, those who took part in the project, are now in the middle of a fairly acrimonious dispute. Ed Moloney, Anthony McIntyre, those who conducted these interviews feel that Boston College folded too easily. They feel that they should have destroyed the tapes rather than hand them over. They say that their lives are in danger and that Boston College should honor the agreement that they made.

Werman: The BBC’s Andy Martin at the federal appeals court in Boston, thank you very much, Andy.

Martin: You’re welcome, Marco.

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