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Graffiti in Belfast criticizing the Belfast Project. It reads: "In-former Republicans/Boston College Touts/McIntyre" (2014)

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] Former IRA prisoner turned academic Anthony McIntyre conducted interviews with Irish republican paramilitary members (including Brendan Hughes, Dolours Price, Ivor Bell, and Richard O'Rawe[4]), while Wilson McArthur, East Belfast resident with strong loyalist ties, conducted interviews with loyalist paramilitary members.[5] The two interviewed more than 40 people.[2][1][6]

Interviews with Hughes and David Ervine[7] 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.[8][1][9] Subsequently, interviews dealing with the murder of Jean McConville, one of "Disappeared" of Northern Ireland, were subpoenaed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).[10] Moloney and McIntyre filed a lawsuit seeking to block this request, arguing that it placed project participants at risk.[10] The ACLU filed a supporting brief.[10] 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."[10] Transcripts of interviews with both Price and Hughes were ultimately given to the PSNI.[11]

In 2014, these interviews were used to charge Ivor Bell with soliciting McConville's murder.[12] Portions of the tapes were played in public for the first time during the court proceedings.[3] Ultimately Bell was acquitted as the court found the tapes to be unreliable and they were not admitted as evidence.[12] 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 in 2015 also subpoenaed by the PSNI and used to prosecute him for murder and other crimes in 2016.[3][13] Rea's trial was delayed repeatedly due to his failing health and the coronavirus pandemic.[14] He died in 2023, before the trial could be concluded.[14]

Boston College announced via a student publication in 2014[15] that it was ending the project, returning tapes to living participants upon request.[16]

Interviewer Anthony McIntyre had himself contributed a recorded interview to the Belfast Project, which were also subsequently subpoenaed by the PSNI in 2018; in April 2024, the courts ultimately ruled in favor of the PSNI accessing the tapes, only five days before the cut-off date of May 1, 2024 set by the Troubles Legacy Act, after which point all active historical investigations and no further inquests into Troubles-era crimes can be launched.[17][18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Gillespie, Gordon. Historical Dictionary of the Northern Ireland Conflict. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2017.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c Boston tapes: Q&A on secret Troubles confessions Archived 2023-11-13 at the Wayback Machine. BBC. 7 October 2019.
  4. ^ Radden Keefe 239
  5. ^ Keefe, Patrick Radden. Say Nothing. Page 229.
  6. ^ Administrator (2019-07-11). "Northern Ireland's sulphurous intrigues | Matthew Ricketson". Inside Story. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  7. ^ White, Rober. Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement. Irish Academic Press. 2017.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Boston tapes: Q&A on secret Troubles confessions". BBC News. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Winston 'Winkie' Rea charged with murders of two Catholic workmen Archived 15 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine, BBC
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Cody, James (19 May 2014). "What BC students need to know about the Belfast Project". The Gavel. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  16. ^ Flynn, Danny; Baker, Scott (28 October 2019). "BC Belfast Project case ends in acquittal". The Height. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Boston College: Police given date to access Anthony McIntyre's tapes". 2024-04-17. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  18. ^ "Legacy Act: What happens with Troubles law on 1 May?". 2024-04-30. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
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