Boston College, Massachusetts, USA, was sent Canadian General de Chastelain's decommissioning files, Northern Ireland political parties' files and interview notes with Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries between 2001 and 2006. These files were forwarded to Boston College with the consent of the British and Irish governments. In early January 2012, an American district court ordered Boston College to hand over to the British authorities interviews in its archives with Dolores Price, a former IRA member, who admitted involvement in the 1972 Jean McConville murder.
The Jean McConville Tragedy
The McConville tragedy is recounted in Ed Moloney's A Secret History of the IRA pp123-125. Jean McConville asked detailed questions from armed IRA men in Divis Flats, Belfast, where she lived. The IRA warned her to cease spying. McConville returned to spying, betraying IRA volunteers and operations, using her British Army supplied transmitter which the IRA found in her flat. The IRA 'Unknowns' were ordered to arrest, abduct and execute her near Carlingford Co. Louth in 1972. Jean McConville's body was never found. Gerry Adams was arrested and interned in July 1973.
Appeal Lodged against British Government Request
Two researchers, Ed Moloney, author of A Secret History of the IRA, and Dr Anthony McIntyre, a former Republican prisoner, confirmed the interviewees were promised confidentiality during their lifetimes and lodged an appeal against the British Government's demands. Boston College is not appealing the American district court decision. Moloney and McIntyre are challenging Boston College for its failure to challenge the court decision. The Boston College files currently rest with the Office of the Assistant US Attorney pending the two researchers' appeal.
Price Inteview with an Irish Newspaper
Boston College claims it chose not to appeal the court decision because Price previously gave an interview with an Irish newspaper where she reiterated her involvement in McConville's murder. Boston College argues confidentiality was always subject to American rule of law.
A Journalist Protects his Sources
A journalist needs to protect his sources and material shared in confidence: however, journalists and academics are subject to law which offers little or no protection. Democracies regularly prosecute journalists and whistleblowers. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2011 secured media film of riots when police cameras were fully operating, Sunday Times 8th January 2012. The Police Ombudsman's 2006 report stated that Jean McConville's abduction had not been properly investigated in 1972, in Northern Ireland, when there were 470 murders, 5,000 people injured and some 10,000 shootings.
The PSNI is clearly the original applicant to secure Price's and 25 other files. These files are stored as archive material for researchers in the USA, a country subject to laws substantially different from the UK and Ireland. This legal difference allows the PSNI to proceed with this court action.
Interviewees may Implicate Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams constant denials regarding his membership of the IRA may be refuted in these 26 IRA interviewees' files. Gerry Adams' Belfast Brigade IRA unit, may have sanctioned McConville's abduction and murder. Justice demands criminals who openly admit criminal activity in print must be subject to the law. Ms Price should be arrested, charged and sentenced.
Sources
- A Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney, Penguin Current Events, 2002
- Making Peace in Ireland by Gerry Adams Brandon Books 2001
Michael Manning - ' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity' W.B.Yeats
