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Boston College willing to return Troubles tapes to interviewees Gerry Adams welcomes Boston College offer to return Troubles tapes
(about 2 hours later)
A US college that is storing an oral history of the Northern Ireland Troubles – part of which was relied upon by police to question Gerry Adams last week about the IRA murder of Jean McConville – has said it is willing to hand back tapes to former paramilitaries who gave interviews. The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, has welcomed the proposed handover of a paramilitary archive from an American university that included allegations on tape that he ordered the kidnapping, killing and secret burial of a mother of 10 during the Troubles.
Last year, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) won a legal battle to force Boston College to hand over sections of the archive that related to McConville's murder. Adams claimed after his release from custody that most of the evidence detectives presented to him was based on allegations levelled by interviewees who had given accounts to the project. Boston College announced on Monday night that it was prepared to give back taped recordings and other material to dozens of ex IRA and loyalist paramilitaries.
The former IRA members Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both now dead, claimed in the tapes that Adams had a role in ordering McConville's murder in 1972. The decision came after the arrest and questioning of Adams over the murder and "disappearance" of Jean McConville in 1972. Adams was freed on Sunday pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. He has consistently denied any involvement in the abduction and murder of the widow, whom the IRA accused of being an informer.
Prosecutors in Northern Ireland have been asked to assess a police file on Adams to decide whether any charges should be brought against the Sinn Féin president. Adams vehemently denies any involvement in the crime or that he was ever a member of the IRA. The archive includes claims by both dead and living IRA members that Adams as a senior commander in the organisation in 1972 came up with the idea of "disappearing" McConville rather than publicly admitting the terror group had killed her. The Belfast woman's remains were not found until 2003 at a beach in the Irish Republic.
The 40-plus participants in the oral project had been assured that their accounts would not be made public until their deaths, but that undertaking was undermined by the US court ruling. Of more than 80 interviews contained in the archive, police obtained sections of 11 tapes. Jack Dunn, a spokesman for Boston College, made the offer to give back the testimonies to all those still alive who had taken part in the Belfast Project.
The college has now indicated its willingness to hand back the tapes to those who were interviewed. Its spokesman Jack Dunn told the BBC: "Obviously we'd have to verify that they were the individuals that took part in the process. If they wanted those documents returned, we'd be prepared to return those documents." "If they wanted those documents returned, we would be prepared to return those documents," Dunn said.
The men behind the project – journalist Ed Moloney and former IRA member turned writer and researcher Anthony McIntyre – have criticised the college for not robustly challenging the PSNI court bid. Dunn said: "Any suggestion that we did not fight hard enough is completely specious." Adams, who has been a bitter critic of the Boston College Belfast Project, has welcomed the offer to send the tapes back to the participants.
On Monday, Adams again criticised his arrest and the quality of evidence presented to him by detectives. "The sham that I was put through in terms of the total failure of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to present any evidential link between me and that awful event is not the way to go forward," he told an election rally in Belfast. "It sends entirely the wrong signal to all of those people out there who vote for the future, who in 2014 thought we had got away from that kind of practice." "Everyone has the right to record their history but not at the expense of the lives of others," he said.
McConville's son Michael alleged that a number of years ago Adams had threatened him with a "backlash" if he released the names of those he believed were responsible for his mother's death. Adams rejected the claim. He added: "I welcome the end of the Boston Belfast Project, indicated by the college's offer to now return the interviews to the interviewees before the 'securocrats' who cannot live with the peace seek to seize the rest of the archive and do mischief."
Loyalist paramilitaries also took part in the project including the late David Ervine, a former senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and later leader of the Progressive Unionist party. His party colleagues have since called for all the tapes to be destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists have launched a bitter attack on the former Labour cabinet ministers Shaun Woodward and Peter Hain over the stance they took on the Adams arrest.
The outgoing MEP and party candidate in the European elections Jim Nicholson said the two former Northern Ireland secretaries had demonstrated a "disturbing willingness to turn a blind eye" to the crimes of the IRA and other paramilitary organisations during the Troubles.
"Interventions by politicians like Peter Hain and Shaun Woodward merely highlight the culture that lay at the heart of the Blair government and the extent to which it was prepared to go in secret deals with the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, culminating in the secret letters of comfort to the so-called on-the-runs," Nicholson said.
Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, has said he will meet the McConville family soon to discuss their ongoing campaign for justice.
Robinson said: "Whilst Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin have been playing the victim, it is important to remember that the real victims are the McConville family. Ten children were left orphaned and have never received justice. This was a horrific and brutal crime.
"The fact that Gerry Adams was questioned for four days demonstrates that this was a serious and significant element of the police investigation."
The Democratic Unionist leader said he hoped to meet Michael McConville over the next few days to discuss how he could help the family.