Belfast Project

Ed Moloney, Robert Keating O'Neill, and Anthony McIntyre played central roles in establishing the oral history initiative. In 2000, Moloney introduced O'Neill to former IRA member Anthony McIntyre, proposing the project to collect confidential interviews with paramilitaries. O'Neill, alongside Boston College historian Thomas Hachey, supported, oversaw, and secured funding for the effort, which ran from 2001 to 2006. Interviews The project conducted around 50 interviews. Wilson McArthur, an East Belfast resident with strong loyalist ties, conducted interviews with loyalist paramilitary members. 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. The book drew on their accounts and implicated Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. == Subsequent legal proceedings ==

PSNI subpoena The book's revelations prompted U.S. Department of Justice subpoenas in May and August 2011, issued under the U.S.-U.K. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty at the request of the Police Services of Northern Ireland who were still investigating McConville's abduction and other crimes. Boston College initially resisted by invoking academic privilege in motions to quash, but federal courts ordered the release of select tapes, leading to 11 being handed over by 2014. Moloney and McIntyre filed a lawsuit seeking to block this request, arguing that it placed project participants at risk. Prosecutions and investigations Ivor Bell In 2014, these interviews were used to charge Ivor Bell with soliciting McConville's murder. Gerry Adams These tapes are also thought to have contributed to Gerry Adams's 2014 arrest, in which no charges were ultimately filed. Rea's trial was delayed repeatedly due to his failing health and the coronavirus pandemic. He died in 2023, before the trial could be concluded. == Criticism ==

Confidentiality The Project faced criticism for mishandling confidentiality assurances, as the contracts may have misled participants about protections against subpoenas issued in the United States. Boston College signed an agreement with Moloney ensuring interviewee contracts guaranteed confidentiality "to the extent American law allows." O'Neill came to regret, however, that the participant contracts didn't specify that the secrecy of the archive may be limited under American law. O'Neill was accused by Moloney of having lost donor forms, including Dolours Price’s, while O'Neill denied the claim, calling it "bizarre" and accusing Moloney of contractual violations. ==References==