Dolours Price Boston Tapes Handed Over

The PSNI are to be handed over transcripts of interviews made with convicted IRA bomber Dolours Price as part of Boston College's controversial Belfast Project.

Police have been attempting to gain access to the interviews of Ms Price, who died in January.

Boston College's Belfast Project was established to form an oral history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

It was done with the understanding that the interviews would only be released once the interviewee had died.

The Belfast Project also features interviews of prominent loyalist David Ervine and republican Brendan Hughes about their time in the UVF and IRA.

Brendan Hughes, who had been inside the H-Blocks with Gerry Adams, made revealing allegations about the Sinn Féin leader's involvement with the Provisional IRA: a claim Mr Adams has always denied.

Brendan Hughes also claimed Gerry Adams had been in charge of the IRA unit that abducted and murdered a group of people now known as the 'Disappeared'.

Dolours Price claimed to have been involved in the disappearances in a newspaper, leading police to begin proceedings in the US courts to obtain her interviews.

Project director Ed Moloney said that Ms Price did not make claims about the Disappeared in the interviews.

The case has divided opinion, as many believe the tapes could lead to revelations in some of the many unsolved murders throughout the Troubles, while academics argue that convictions based on interviews given in trust could harm the possibilities for future academic research.

The DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has welcomed the news.

He said: "After a lengthy delay it is very welcome that the PSNI can now access the transcripts of taped interviews with Dolours Price. These could well contain vital information relating to despicable crimes including the abduction and murder of Jean McConville. Hopefully justice for the McConville family can now follow this decision.

“There was an innate arrogance in the attempt to prevent the police accessing these interviews in order to carry out a criminal investigation. Whilst the journalists who carried out the interviews did so on the basis that they would not be released prior to the subject’s death, there seems to be no legal basis for them to give such an assurance, particularly if their contents can help a police investigation.

"There are many families across Northern Ireland who still seek to find the truth about what happened their loved ones, and no more so than the families of the disappeared whose relatives were abducted, tortured and murdered by the IRA. I would hope that the release of these tapes can hopefully shed some more light on the actions of republican terrorists during the Troubles leading to justice for their victims."

(IT/CD)