Belfast Project
The Belfast Project was an oral history project on the Troubles based at Boston College in Massachusetts, U.S. The project began in 2000[1] and the last interviews were concluded in 2006.[2] The interviews were intended to be released after the participants' deaths[1] and serve as a resource for future historians.
Ed Moloney was the project's director.[3] Anthony McIntyre conducted interviews with Irish republicans (including Brendan Hughes, Dolours Price, Ivor Bell, and Richard O'Rawe[4]), while Wilson McArthur interviewed loyalists.[5] The two interviewed more than 40 people.[2][1]
Interviews with Hughes and David Ervine[6] were used (after their deaths) as the basis for Moloney's 2010 book Voices From The Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland, drawing attention to the archive.[7][1][8] Subsequently, interviews dealing with the murder of Jean McConville were subpoenaed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).[9] Moloney and McIntyre filed a lawsuit seeking to block this request, arguing that it placed project participants at risk.[9] The ACLU filed a supporting brief.[9] However, the PSNI ultimately won the resulting court battle, with a United States appeals court decision stating, "The choice to investigate criminal activity belongs to the government and is not subject to veto by academic researchers."[9]
In 2014, these interviews were used to charge Ivor Bell with soliciting McConville's murder.[10] Bell was acquitted—the court found the tapes to be unreliable and they were not admitted as evidence.[10] These tapes are also thought to have contributed to Gerry Adams's 2014 arrest, in which no charges were ultimately filed.[1]
The project's interviews with the loyalist Winston Churchill Rea were later subpoenaed by the PSNI and used to prosecute him for murder and other crimes in 2016.[11] Rea's trial was delayed repeatedly due to his failing health and the coronavirus pandemic.[12] He died in 2023, before the trial could be concluded.[12]
Boston College announced via a student publication in 2014[13] that it was ending the project, returning tapes to living participants, upon request.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Gillespie, Gordon. Historical Dictionary of the Northern Ireland Conflict. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2017.
- ^ a b Stackpole, Thomas.How an Oral History Project Got the Head of Sinn Fein Arrested Archived 2023-11-12 at the Wayback Machine. Foreign Policy. May 2, 2014.
- ^ Boston tapes: Q&A on secret Troubles confessions Archived 2023-11-13 at the Wayback Machine. BBC. 7 October 2019.
- ^ Radden Keefe 239
- ^ Keefe, Patrick Radden. Say Nothing. Page 229.
- ^ White, Rober. Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement. Irish Academic Press. 2017.
- ^ Bean, K. (2010). Review of Voices From The Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland, by E. Moloney Archived 2023-11-12 at the Wayback Machine. Democracy and Security, 6(3), 302–305.
- ^ "Boston College condemns threats made against IRA interviewer Anthony McIntyre". IrishCentral. 20 April 2010. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ^ a b c d Williams, Matt (7 July 2012). "Boston College ordered to turn IRA interviews over to UK authorities". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ a b "The Troubles: Former IRA man Ivor Bell cleared of Jean McConville charges". BBC. 17 October 2019. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ Winston 'Winkie' Rea charged with murders of two Catholic workmen Archived 15 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine, BBC
- ^ a b Campbell, Brett (2023-12-01). "Veteran loyalist Winston 'Winkie' Rea dies day after wife's funeral". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ Cody, James (19 May 2014). "What BC students need to know about the Belfast Project". The Gavel. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Flynn, Danny; Baker, Scott (28 October 2019). "BC Belfast Project case ends in acquittal". The Height. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External links
[edit]- The Belfast Project, Boston College, and a Sealed Subpoena Blog devoted to the court case, with many court documents