US prosecutors seek access to IRA tapes

Secret tapes of former IRA members that could implicate Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, in dozens of murders in the 1970s have been demanded by American prosecutors acting on behalf of the British authorities.

A subpoena has been received by Boston College for the tapes of interviews with Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both one-time senior IRA figures, carried out by researchers for an oral history project.

Dissidents must hear true voices of the past

Hughes, a convicted IRA man who was once arrested with Mr Adams, died in 2008. A book “Voices from the Grave” by Ed Moloney, based on the interviews, quoted him as identifying Mr Adams, who has always denied ever being a member of the IRA, was commander of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade in 1972.

Jean McConville, a mother of 10, was abducted by the IRA that year under apparent suspicion of being an informer. Her fate remained a mystery until her bones were discovered on a County Louth beach in 2003.

Dolours Price

In the book, Hughes was quoted as saying: “There was only one man whom gave the order for the woman [Mrs McConville] to be executed. That man is now the head of Sinn Fein.”

Price, like Hughes, publicly broke with Mr Adams and Sinn Fein in the 1990s in protest at the “peace process” that led to 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In 2010, she gave an interview to the “Irish News”, which ran a story stating she was believed to have been “privy to details of the final days” of Mrs McConville.

“In 1969 we had a naive enthusiasm about what we wanted. Now in 1999 we have no enthusiasm. And it is not because people are war weary - they are politics weary. The same old lies regurgitated week in week out. With the war politics had some substance. Now it has none. The political process has created a class of professional liars and unfortunately it contains many republicans. But I still think that potential exists to bring about something different. And I speak not just about our own community but about the loyalist community also. Ex-prisoners from both and not the politicians can effect some radical change.”

Brendan "Darkie" Hughes 1948-2008 R.I.P

Mr Moloney said that the names of those interviewed, understood to number more than 50, remained secret until an interviewee died or chose to identify themselves. He would not confirm that Price had been interviewed.

The researchers suspect that the target of what appears to be a criminal investigation could be Mr Adams, not least because Hughes cannot be prosecuted because he is dead. “Of course, you’ve got the big lad,” said Mr Moloney, referring to Mr Adams. “One way or another, he’s going to be mired in the whole thing.”More at Source