Ivor Bell ruling may jeopardise future Troubles prosecutions

Ivor Bell ruling may jeopardise future Troubles prosecutions
Judge dismisses recordings and directs jury to find Bell not guilty of soliciting murder
Gerry Moriarty, Brian Hutton
Irish Times
18 October 2019

Future prosecutions based on taped interviews with Troubles-era paramilitaries could be in jeopardy after a judge ruled that recordings of Ivor Bell used in his trial for soliciting the 1972 murder of Jean McConville were inadmissible.

Mr Justice John O’Hara was highly critical of the Belfast Project oral history archive after finding that republican and loyalist paramilitaries who provided accounts of their involvement in the conflict did so under the “false guarantee” of confidentiality to protect them from prosecution.

The judge yesterday directed a jury at Laganside Crown Court in Belfast to find Mr Bell (82) not guilty of soliciting Gerry Adams and the late Pat McClure to murder Ms McConville, a mother of 10.

Mr Bell did not provide evidence during the case as he is suffering from vascular dementia, so a trial of the facts was held. This is a court process that can be held when an accused is judged unfit to stand trial due to serious ill-health. The trial sought to establish if Mr Bell committed the alleged acts, and no reporting of the proceedings was allowed until it concluded.

Interviews inadmissible

The judge said the lead researcher on the project, Anthony McIntyre, who conducted the inadmissible interviews with Mr Bell, was guilty of bias and had his “own agenda against Mr Adams, the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement”.

Mr McIntyre, a former IRA prisoner, worked on the Belfast Project under the directorship of writer Ed Moloney, while the overall project was run from Boston College.

Mr Moloney said he “refutes absolutely” any bias on the part of the project and that it would in time be regarded as “a very important body of work”.

“I’m sorry, but these people have not read the entire archive,” he said. “The judges haven’t – they’ve read one or two interviews from a vast hoard of what Ivor Bell did and made these sweeping generalisations. It’s absurd, it’s nonsense, they can’t do that.”

Mr Moloney said it “goes without saying” that he regrets that the PSNI was able to obtain the interview with Mr Bell.

The Troubles: Former IRA man Ivor Bell cleared of Jean McConville charges

The Troubles: Former IRA man Ivor Bell cleared of Jean McConville charges
By Lesley-Anne McKeown
BBC News NI
17 October 2019

The first prosecution linked to the murder of mother-of-10 Jean McConville over 40 years ago has found a former senior IRA leader not guilty.

The 1972 killing was one of the most notorious of the Troubles.

On Thursday, Ivor Bell, from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast, was cleared of soliciting the widow’s murder.

The court also heard allegations that former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams had recommended her murder and disappearance.

However, Mr Adams, who was called as a defence witness at Belfast Crown Court, strenuously denied involvement.

Tapes ‘unreliable’

The case against the 82-year-old Mr Bell was based on alleged admissions made to a Boston College oral history project, which were played in public for the first time during the legal action.

Reporting restrictions were placed on the court case, but they were lifted on Thursday.

During the hearing, the jury was played taped recordings of an interview with a man – alleged to be Bell – who said Gerry Adams was the IRA’s “officer commanding” in Belfast and had been involved in the decision to kill and secretly bury Mrs McConville.

The judge later ruled the tapes were unreliable and could not be used as evidence against Mr Bell.

Addressing the jury, Mr Justice O’Hara said: “There is now no evidence which the prosecution can put before you in order to support the case.

“My role now is to direct you to return a verdict of not guilty, because you simply cannot find him to have done the acts alleged.”

‘Some truth’

Five of Mrs McConville’s children were in court and in a statement issued afterwards, Mrs McConville’s son, Michael, said the family was “bitterly disappointed” the Boston tapes could not be used as evidence and demanded a full public inquiry.

He said: “Throughout this, we have got many doors closed on us and we have walked many a road.

“This is the closest that we are going to get to justice.”

Susan Townsley, who was aged six when her mother was abducted, choked back tears as she said: “This is the only thing we are going to get at the end of the day.

“As a family we are just going to have to stick together. It has been very hard on all of us.”

Mr Bell’s solicitor, Peter Corrigan, said his client had been vindicated and that the Boston tapes were “inherently unreliable”.

‘Complex legal issues’

The Public Prosecution Service defended the decision to take the case.

Deputy Director Michael Agnew said: “This case presented the PPS with a number of novel and complex legal and evidential issues. Whilst we respect the ruling of the judge, we remain satisfied the proceedings were properly brought.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Bobby Singleton of PSNI’s Legacy Investigation Branch said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with Jean’s family on what will have been a day of mixed emotions.

“We will take some time to consider judgement and its implications on similar cases. It was always our firm belief that we had assembled a strong case and that it was in the public interest for the details to be heard.”

Secret burial

Mr Adams has always denied being in the IRA and, in his evidence, he said he had no part to play in Mrs McConville’s abduction, murder or secret burial.

Appearing in court on Monday, the former west Belfast MP told the jury: “I categorically deny any involvement in the abduction, killing and burial of Jean McConville, or indeed any others.”

Mr Adams, who spent over an hour giving evidence, said he believed Mrs McConville should “not have been shot”, but should have been shown “compassion”.

Mrs McConville, who was wrongly accused of being an Army informer, was dragged from her west Belfast home in front of her children in December 1972.

She was shot and secretly buried by the IRA, becoming one of the Disappeared victims of the Troubles.

Her body was recovered from Shelling Hill Beach in County Louth in 2003.

Disappearance ‘recommended’

Ivor Bell’s defence team argued it could not be proven that he was the man on the tapes, known as ‘Interviewee Z’ and that he had been living in County Louth at the time of the murder.

In a ruling on Wednesday, the judge said there was “overwhelming” evidence it was Mr Bell speaking on the recording.

The so-called Boston tapes collated accounts from former IRA and UVF paramilitaries about their activities during the Troubles on the understanding these would not be made public until after their deaths.

In 2014, the PSNI won a trans-Atlantic court battle and seized some of the tapes.

Ivor Bell was subsequently charged with two counts of soliciting murder. He was deemed unfit to stand trial in 2018 and a legal process known as a ‘trial of the facts’ was launched to establish the truth of the allegations.

He was excused from attending the court hearings on health grounds.

On the tapes, Z was asked if there was “a possibility” that allegations Mr Adams had given the order for Mrs McConville’s killing and disappearance were wrong.

‘Policy of disappearing informants’

Interviewee Z replied: “The only thing I have to say is this – Gerry would have just passed the information back to GHQ [IRA’s general headquarters] that one, she was a tout, two, she was taking money, three, she had to be executed. Right?

“Whether he knew she had 10 kids or not, I don’t know.”

Interviewee Z was also asked about a “policy” of disappearing informants.

He claimed it would have ultimately been a decision for the IRA’s general headquarters, but that the “Belfast brigade” would have “advocated” it.

Interviewee Z claimed Mr Adams was the IRA’s commanding officer (OC) in Belfast at the time.

‘We should shoot touts’

He said: “He was the OC of Belfast. I was operations officer. Pat [McClure] was the IO [intelligence officer]. Pat handled it and directly tied in with Gerry.

“The first I knew about that woman was [when] I was told she was being shot as a tout and the reason for it was she was an informer.

“They told me about radios, signals and pulling the curtains up and down.

“I said: ‘I don’t know anything about anything, other than we did not have jails so we should shoot touts.’

“The people who came to me was Pat and Gerry.”

The interviewer also asked about Mr Adams’ attitude towards “burying” Mrs McConville.

Interviewee Z said: “Just that she was a tout and she should be shot.

“I wouldn’t say he would have liked it very much.”

Z further described his own attitude towards informants.

“At the end of the day, she’s an informer,” he said. “Worse than that, she’s an informer for money.

“Whatever is decided, I will back that up. I said: ‘I don’t have a problem with shooting touts.’

“But they said: ‘We are going to bury her.’

“I said I didn’t agree with that… If that’s done, it’s done without my agreement. It defeats the entire purpose.”

‘Second thoughts’

He later added: “I said: ‘If she’s a tout, the fact that she’s a woman shouldn’t save her.’

“I wasn’t told she had 10 kids and no husband.

“I can’t say for sure that I would have said: ‘No, don’t shoot her.’

“But I may have had second thoughts.”

St Peter’s priest

Meanwhile, it was also alleged Mr Adams had asked a priest to get Jean McConville out of Belfast.

According to Interviewee Z: “Gerry said that they asked a priest to get her out of town and the priest for St Peter’s refused.”

When asked about his motivation for taking part in the oral history project, Z provided two reasons – historical accuracy and annoyance at discovering he was being blamed for the controversial killing.

The court heard claims high-profile republican Bobby Storey, referred to as a “clown” called at Z’s house to make enquiries because Sinn Féin were coming under political pressure over the Disappeared.

Z said: “What annoyed me, he sent an idiot to my house to ask about the woman in the flats.

“I told him… my knowledge of that would be second-hand, why don’t you ask Gerry?

“The annoying thing is, he actually believed Gerry.”

Most of the Boston College interviews with republicans were carried out by former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre, an outspoken critic of Sinn Féin.

The judge ruled Dr McIntyre had asked leading questions, which tainted the evidential value of the tapes.

Mr Justice O’Hara also ruled the false promise that testimony would remain confidential until the contributor’s death could have liberated Mr Bell to speak the truth, but could also have given him the freedom to lie, distort, blame or mislead.

There was clear bias that both Mr McIntyre and Mr Bell had an agenda and were “out to get” Mr Adams and others, the judge said.

Earlier in the case, Professor Kevin O’Neill, a director of Irish Studies at Boston College, said the project was now held up as a model of how not to conduct oral history.

But Ed Moloney, the journalist behind the Boston College project, said he welcomed Mr Bell’s acquittal and called on the authorities to drop all other cases related to the tapes.

He added those who criticised the project overlooked the fact that because of it the McConville family knows more about her disappearance than before.

He said: “If they had been reliant on the PSNI they would be in for a long wait.”

Judgement: Application to Exclude the Boston Tapes Evidence

“The tapes will become public with the end of this trial. Everyone who reads about them can form their own view, informed or otherwise, on the many issues they raise. But in the context of a criminal trial they are just not reliable or fairly obtained evidence.”

Ivor Bell found not guilty of soliciting murder of Jean McConville

Ivor Bell found not guilty of soliciting murder of Jean McConville
Judge directs jury to not guilty verdict, ‘you cannot find him to have done the acts alleged’
Gerry Moriarty
Irish Times
17 October 2019

The trial of Ivor Bell, charged with soliciting Gerry Adams and the late Pat McClure to murder Jean McConville, concluded on Thursday with the jury on the direction of the judge returning a verdict of not guilty.

There were reporting restrictions placed on the eight-day trial which began last Monday week but these were lifted by Mr Justice (John) O’Hara on Thursday at its conclusion.

On Thursday morning the judge told the jury “there was no evidence that the prosecution can put before you supports the case” against 82-year-old Mr Bell.

“My role now is to direct you to return a verdict of not guilty because you simply cannot find him to have done the acts alleged,” said the judge.

The prosecution lawyer, Ciaran Murphy, QC, said there would be no appeal of this decision.

Mr Justice O’Hara gave his instruction to the jury after on Wednesday ruling that evidence from the Boston tapes featuring Mr Bell was inadmissible.

The prosecution case that Mr Bell “encouraged” or “endeavoured to persuade” Mr Adams and Mr McClure to murder the 38-year-old widowed mother of ten children in late 1972 largely rested on interviews Mr Bell gave to the Belfast Project, also known as the Boston tapes.

The project was an oral history of the Troubles run by Boston College in the US under the directorship of journalist and writer Ed Moloney where former republican and loyalist paramilitaries gave interviews about their roles in the conflict with the commitment these interviews could not be published until after their deaths.

Mr Bell, a former alleged IRA chief of staff gave interviews to the lead researcher in the project, former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre, a history PhD graduate.

Tapes

During the trial two tapes of the interview given by Mr Bell were played in court where he alleged that Mr Adams said Ms McConville should be shot as an alleged informer – an allegation that the former Sinn Féin president, who also gave evidence, strongly denied.

In the tape when asked what was Mr Adams’s attitude to burying Ms McConville Mr Bell replied: “just that she was a tout. She should be shot.”

Mr Bell told Mr McIntyre he (Mr Bell) had no objection to shooting “touts” but that he disagreed with burying or disappearing them because it “defeats the entire purpose” of killing them.

He said he made that point clear to Mr Adams and the late Mr McClure who, it is alleged was directly involved in the shooting of Ms McConville at Shellinghill Beach in Co Louth, but that Mr Adams and Mr McClure said she should be buried.

When Mr McIntyre asked Mr Bell did he recall Mr Adams or Mr McClure saying that she “should be disappeared” he replied, “Yeah. They said they couldn’t take the heat from throwing her on the street.”

This happened, said Mr Bell, at a night meeting on the Falls Road late in 1972 attended by him, Mr Adams, Mr McClure and a “girl” who stayed in the background.

During Mr Adams’s evidence the prosecuting counsel, Ciaran Murphy, QC, asked the former Sinn Féin leader would he have had a problem “shooting touts”.

“I would have a problem shooting anyone. That’s a very loaded question. I am not on trial here,” Mr Adams responded.

Mr Adams denied the allegations, insisting that he attended no such meeting on the Falls Road with Mr Bell and Mr McClure in late 1972.

With five of Ms McConville’s children looking on from the public gallery on a number of occasions Mr Adams denied involvement in their mother’s murder.

‘Deny involvement’

“I categorically deny any involvement in the abduction, killing and burial of Jean McConville or indeed any others,” he said.

Mr Adams said Ms McConville should not have been killed. It was “totally wrong to have shot and secretly buried these folk”. He said there should have been “compassion shown to Mrs McConville – a lone woman with 10 children – that should have begged compassion”.

Mr Adams under cross-examination from Mr Murphy said during the Troubles if people were agents or informers they were liable to be shot.

“It is a regrettable fact that when armies are engaged in war they do kill those that would have been perceived as having assisted the enemy by giving information or in any way jeopardising (the organisation),” he said.

Mr Adams also was highly critical of Mr Moloney and Mr McIntyre and the Belfast Project which he said was “most suspect” with no “real scholarly, historical process of evaluating and bringing forward facts about Irish history”.

On Wednesday Mr Justice O’Hara, following an application by defence lawyer, Barry MacDonald, QC, ruled that the Boston tapes used by the prosecution should be inadmissible.

Mr MacDonald over the course of the trial had argued that the Belfast Project had been discredited by academics. One of the witnesses, history professor Kevin O’Neill from Boston College said the project was “now held up as a model of how not to do oral history”.

Mr MacDonald contended that Mr McIntyre “was a man on a mission and had an agenda to discredit Gerry Adams and other architects of the peace process”.

Mr Justice O’Hara said Mr McIntyre was not a “neutral interviewer”. He said he and Mr Bell had a “clear bias and were out to get Gerry Adams”.

His version of the truth

The judge added that “while Mr Bell may have felt he was free to tell his version of the truth…..the difficulty is he also may have felt free to lie, distort, exaggerate, blame and mislead”.

After the case a statement was issued on behalf of Mr Bell and his family. They acknowledged that the “entire process has been a difficult and at times frustrating process for the family of Jean McConville, who have been seeking truth and justice for over 50 years”.

They added, “From the outset of this process Ivor has vehemently denied the allegations levelled against him relating to the murder of Jean McConville. He put forward an alibi at the earliest opportunity at the police station.

“In the course of this trial process the court heard evidence which corroborated Ivor’s alibi, and that he was not in the jurisdiction at the time of the murder.”

Mr Bell and his family added that the “court has rightly held that the Boston College tapes are inherently unreliable. we now look forward to putting this case and its ill-founded allegations behind us”.

Peter Corrigan, Mr Bell’s lawyer added: “The Boston tapes were of no benefit from a historical perspective, never mind meeting the threshold of evidence in a criminal trial.

“The process from start to finish was fatally flawed, which lacked the relevant safeguards and as described by one expert during the course of the trial ‘is exactly not to conduct an oral history project’.”

Ivor Bell Found Not Guilty of Soliciting Jean McConville Murder

Ivor Bell found not guilty of soliciting Jean McConville murder
Belfast Newsletter
17 October 2019

Judge Mr Justice O’Hara directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty having earlier ruled that taped interviews, which were the central plank of the prosecution case, were inadmissible.

A veteran republican has been cleared of soliciting the murder of a mother of 10 in 1972, after a trial which heard a claim that Gerry Adams recommended her secret burial.

The former Sinn Fein president rejected the allegation as he appeared as a witness at a trial of the facts into two charges against Ivor Bell.

Five of Jean McConville’s surviving children were at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday as a jury of four women and eight men found Mr Bell not guilty of encouraging her murder.

Mr Bell, 82, of Ramoan Gardens in Belfast, was not present for the trial of the facts which came after he was found medically unfit to stand trial in December last year. He was excused from attending due to his health.

Judge Mr Justice O’Hara directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty having earlier ruled that taped interviews, which were the central plank of the prosecution case, were inadmissible.

“As a result of some legal rulings which have been made over the last two days there is now no evidence that the prosecution can put before you to support the case it was putting against Mr Bell,” he said.

“My role now is to direct you to return a verdict of not guilty because you simply cannot find him to have done the acts alleged.”

The judge also lifted restrictions that had prevented reporting of the two-week trial of the facts.

Mr Justice O’Hara told the jury at Belfast Crown Court: “As a result of some legal rulings which have been made over the last two days there is now no evidence that the prosecution can put before you to support the case it was putting against Mr Bell.

“My role now is to direct you to return a verdict of not guilty because you simply cannot find him to have done the acts alleged.”

Mr Justice O’Hara lifted reporting restrictions which had prohibited the reporting of the trial of the facts following the verdict.

A jury of eight men and four women were directed to reach the not guilty verdict following a trial of the facts after Mr Bell, 82, of Ramoan Gardens in Belfast was found medically unfit to stand trial in 2018.

The aim of a trial of the facts is to determine the truth of the allegations against the defendant.

It cannot result in a conviction, but if the court is not satisfied that the accused committed the acts alleged, then he will be acquitted.

Mr Bell was excused from attending proceedings at Belfast Crown Court over the last two weeks due to his health.

The trial was the subject of blanket reporting restrictions which were lifted on Thursday following a challenge from a number of media organisations including the PA news agency.

Mr Bell had been charged with encouraging murder and endeavouring to persuade people to murder.

The prosecution case centred on an interview given by interviewee Z to Anthony McIntyre for the Boston College-sponsored Belfast Project, an oral history project of Northern Ireland’s troubled past.

Tapes from the project were seized by the PSNI in 2014 following a transatlantic court battle. The prosecution argued that Z is Mr Bell.

Following the Crown Court ruling, the McConville family said they are “bitterly disappointed”.

In a statement they said: “It was not easy to listen to Ivor Bell’s confession and we are bitterly disappointed that it cannot be used in evidence in this case.

“But whatever happens (with) the legal technicalities, everyone in the court this week heard how the abduction, murder and disappearance of our mother 47 years ago was planned.

“For 20 years the IRA denied they had anything to do with murder and disappearance and they only admitted it when it suited them.

“She was not an informer and Gerry Adams has confirmed in court that he didn’t believe that she was.”
The McConville family have demanded a full public inquiry into their mother’s death.

“She was a loving, working class widowed mother doing her best to raise 10 children,” their statement added.

“They murdered her because they could.

“We may not have got justice but we have got some truth. But this cannot finish here.

“We need and demand a full public inquiry. We’ve heard Gerry Adams often call for inquiries.

“Will he support this one?”

A statement issued on behalf of Ivor Bell and his family said: “At the outset the family would like to acknowledge that today and the entire process has been a difficult and, at times, frustrating process for the family of Jean McConville who have been seeking truth and justice for 50 years.

“Today’s ruling vindicates Ivor Bell and comes as exoneration after a five-year-long legal battle.

“From the outset of this process, Ivor has vehemently denied the allegations levelled against him relating to the murder of Jean McConville.

“He put forward an alibi at the earliest opportunity at the police station.

“In the course of this trial process, the court heard evidence which corroborated Ivor’s alibi, and that he was not in the jurisdiction at the time of the murder.

“The court has rightly held that the Boston College tapes are inherently unreliable. We now look forward to putting this case and its ill-founded allegations behind us.”

Ivor Bell’s solicitor Peter Corrigan said: “The Boston Tapes were of no benefit from a historical perspective, never mind meeting the threshold of evidence in a criminal trial.

“The process from start to finish was fatally flawed, which lacked the relevant safeguards, and is described by one expert during the course of this trial as ‘exactly not how to conduct an oral history project’

Paramilitary history project is suspended

Paramilitary history project is suspended
Sean O’Driscoll
thetimes.co.uk
July 11 2016

A multimillion dollar attempt to record former republican and loyalist paramilitaries has been suspended indefinitely because of the PSNI’s success in obtaining the tapes.

Last week, Ivor Bell, a veteran IRA man, was charged with aiding the murder of Jean McConville, a Belfast mother, as a result of alleged confessions he made to the Boston College researchers.

Jack Dunn, the university’s news and public affairs director, said that the public and academics could no longer seek to hear the tapes in which paramilitaries talk about their role in shootings and bombings during the Troubles. “The project is not accessible for the time being. Because of the legal proceedings, a decision has been made not to make the tapes available to the public. We’ll address the matter later once the legal proceedings have been resolved,” he said. Mr Bell denies all charges.

Under the rules of the Boston College project, the tapes were to become available to researchers after the interviewees had died.

Ed Moloney, a journalist who coordinated the recording of the tapes, had already released a book, Voices From The Grave, based on taped interviews with Brendan Hughes and David Ervine, respectively senior members of the IRA and the UVF. The book was released after both men had died.

All such research has been suspended and legal battles over the tapes are likely to take years. A person close to the project said that it was unlikely that it would ever be restarted, given the negative publicity surrounding it and the potential prosecutions that could follow from confessions on the tapes.

Mr Dunn strongly rejected claims by Anthony McIntyre, a former IRA volunteer who was jailed for 18 years and had recorded the Republican interviewees for Boston College, that the project’s leaders had not done enough to stop the PSNI from seizing some of the tapes. “That is absolutely wrong. We fought very hard to protect the tapes through the US courts,” Mr Dunn said.

Mr McIntyre told The Times this weekend that he “would never, ever have gotten involved in the project” had he known that “so little effort would be made to fight the PSNI in the US courts”.

Last week, Mr Bell, 79, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Ms McConville and with being an IRA member. The killing of Ms McConville, 37, was one of the most notorious incidents in the Troubles.

She was abducted by the IRA at her home in the Divis flats in December 1972, shot dead and then secretly buried 50 miles away. She was wrongly accused by the group of passing information to the British Army.

In 1999 the IRA admitted its involvement in her death and her remains were found on a Co Louth beach four years later. Post-mortem examinations revealed she was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Nobody has been convicted of the murder.

Although the interviews were given to the Boston College project on the basis that transcripts would not to be published until after the deaths of those who took part, pledges of confidentiality were rendered meaningless when in 2013 a US court ordered that the tapes should be handed over to detectives investigating Mrs McConville’s killing.

Judgment reserved on Jean McConville trial challenge

Judgment reserved on Jean McConville trial challenge
newsletter.co.uk

Judgment has been reserved at a hearing to determine if a veteran Belfast republican is to stand trial over the killing of Disappeared victim Jean McConville.

Lawyers for Ivor Bell are seeking to have his prosecution on charges of soliciting to murder dismissed at a preliminary stage.

But following two days of evidence and legal arguments at Belfast Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Amanda Henderson said she will try to give a decision next week.

She explained: “There have been lengthy submissions made and I would like to refer to those.”

Bell, 79, from Ramoan Gardens in the city, denies charges against him connected to an allegation that he encouraged or persuaded others to kill the mother of 10.

Mrs McConville was seized by the IRA from her Divis Flats home in west Belfast in 1972 after being wrongly accused of being an informer.

Following her abduction she was shot dead and then secretly buried.

Her body was discovered on a Co Louth beach in 2003.

The case against Bell centres on an interview he allegedly gave to researchers involved in the Boston College history project with ex-paramilitaries about their roles in the Northern Ireland conflict.

Although it was believed transcripts were not to be published until after the deaths of those who took part, a US court ordered the tapes should be handed over to PSNI detectives investigating Mrs McConville’s killing.

It is alleged that Bell was one of the project interviewees, given the title Z, who spoke about the circumstances surrounding the decision to abduct her.

His legal team claim the case against him is not strong enough to have him returned for trial.

Dressed in a dark shirt, Bell showed little expression as he sat in the dock throughout the proceedings.

Behind him in the public gallery were some of his relatives and members of the victim’s family.

During the preliminary inquiry a librarian from Boston College accepted defence claims that former paramilitaries were misled into thinking they could reveal their activities to the study with complete impunity.

Dr Robert O’Neill confirmed a contract between the university and the project director guaranteed confidentiality only to the extent American law allowed.

But the court heard separate “donor agreements” with interviewees gave them the impression nothing would be disclosed without their consent prior to their deaths.

Appearing via video-link from America, Dr O’Neill insisted any impression interview tapes would remain secret during their lifetime was down to an oversight in that contract.

In closing arguments Barry Macdonald QC, for Bell, claimed it had not been proven that the case involved original recordings.

He pointed out the two men said to have carried out interviews for the Boston project, Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre, had not featured in the hearing.

“In the absence of their evidence there is no evidence to the effect that these recordings are original, authentic recordings,” Mr Macdonald contended.

“We invite the court to decide this material is not admissible.”

Judge Henderson will now re-examine all submissions before reaching her verdict on whether Bell has a case to answer.

Boston College ‘misled’ paramilitaries over tapes confidentiality

Boston College ‘misled’ paramilitaries over tapes confidentiality
newsletter.co.uk
28 June 2016

Former paramilitaries were misled into thinking they could reveal their activities to an American university study with complete impunity, a court has heard.

But a librarian from Boston College insisted any impression interview tapes would remain confidential during their lifetime was down to an oversight in a contract they signed.

Dr Robert O’Neill was giving evidence at a preliminary inquiry to decide if veteran Belfast republican Ivor Bell is to stand trial over the killing of Disappeared victim Jean McConville.

Bell, 79, from Ramoan Gardens in the city, denies charges of soliciting to murder connected to an allegation that he encouraged or persuaded others to kill the mother of 10.

Mrs McConville was seized by the IRA from her Divis Flats home in west Belfast in 1972 after being wrongly accused of being an informer.

Following her abduction she was shot dead and then secretly buried.

Her body was discovered on a Co Louth beach in 2003.

The case against Bell centres on an interview he allegedly gave to researchers involved in the Boston College history project with ex-paramilitaries about their roles in the Northern Ireland conflict.

Although it was believed transcripts were not to be published until after the deaths of those who took part, a US court ordered the tapes should be handed over to PSNI detectives investigating Mrs McConville’s killing.

It is alleged that Bell was one of the project interviewees, given the title Z, who spoke about the circumstances surrounding the decision to abduct her.

His legal team claim the case against him should be dismissed.

During a hearing at Belfast Magistrates’ Court to examine the strength of the evidence Dr O’Neill, Burns Librarian at the College, appeared by video link from Boston.

He confirmed a contract between the college and the project director guaranteed confidentiality only to the extent American law allowed.

But the court heard separate “donor agreements” with interviewees gave them the impression nothing would be disclosed without their consent prior to their deaths.

Cross-examining the librarian, Barry Macdonald QC, for Bell, asked: “Do you now see how they were all misled, those people who were interviewed?”

Dr O’Neill replied: “Yes.”

He also accepted counsel’s suggestion they received guarantees that should never have been given, leaving them feeling “free to make all sorts of claims in respect to themselves and other with impunity”.

The librarian agreed it was accurate to say interviewees believed there was no prospect of facing prosecution or having their accounts tested during their lifetimes.

Challenged on why he did nothing to correct the impression, he responded: “It was an oversight on my part and I will accept responsibility for that, that the agreement with the interviewees did not include the restriction ‘to the extent American law allows’.”

During the hearing it also emerged that he received 25 per cent of the royalties from journalist and author Ed Moloney’s book ‘Voices from the Grave’, based on Brendan Hughes’ and David Ervine’s contributions to the oral history project at Boston before their deaths.

Continuing with questioning, Mr Macdonald contended that interviewees were effectively induced into giving accounts of their involvement because they felt there would be no come back.

“Do you see how interviewees might have been led to believe by the terms of this agreement that they could, if they wanted to, settle old scores, or implicate people in things they hadn’t done, or implicate themselves in things they hadn’t done,” the barrister asked.

“In other words, the contracts themselves permitted the state of affairs which led to these interviews being inherently unreliable.”

Although Dr O’Neill accepted there may have been misunderstandings, he stressed that there could never be absolute confidentiality.

He went on: “It was widely believed that these stories were going to go to the grave.

“With the interviewees’ accounts there was an opportunity to record their stories, the entire project was motivated on the basis of recording as much as possible, the stories of participants in the paramilitary movement.”

Pressing him to confirm the donor agreement oversight was completely innocent, Mr Macdonald put it to the librarian that the consequences for those taking part could be “dire”.

He continued: “The question arises whether this was not inadvertent or accidental, but a deliberate omission in order to encourage all those interviewees to speak on the understanding that there would be no implications for them during their lifetimes.

“In other words it was deliberately done to loosen their tongues.”

Dr O’Neill replied: “I can only say it was not deliberate on my side.”

The hearing continues.

Boston College seeks to quash application for Anthony McIntyre interviews

Boston College seeks to quash application for Anthony McIntyre interviews
Historian was involved in interviewing 26 republicans as part of project
Gerry Moriarty
The Irish Times
Wed, May 25, 2016

Boston College is due on Thursday to formally seek to overturn an application that would compel the university to hand over taped interviews given by former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre as part of the Belfast Project.

The British government, acting on behalf of the PSNI and the office of the North’s Director of Public Prosecution, last month served a subpoena on Boston College seeking access to Dr McIntyre’s personal interviews.

Historian Dr McIntyre, who served time in prison on an IRA murder conviction, was involved in interviewing 26 republicans as part of the oral history of the Troubles project.

Dr McIntyre also gave an interview about his IRA involvement during the conflict to another interviewer as part of the project.

Last month, Boston College’s spokesman Jack Dunn said the “subpoena was issued in proceedings that the United States District Court ordered sealed, and Boston College was requested to treat the proceedings and the subpoena as confidential”.

He added that, nevertheless, the college notified Dr McIntyre of the subpoena because it felt he should be informed his interview was requested.

On Wednesday, Mr Dunn told The Irish Times that Boston College intended to “file a motion to quash the subpoena as they have with the previous subpoenas”.

The matter, however, is under seal in the US federal court and our filing will not be public,” he added.

It is likely to be some time before the court issues its judgment on the matter.

Boston College opposes legal moves to seize IRA tapes

Boston College opposes legal moves to seize IRA tapes
A subpoena has been served on the US college to hand over recordings from ex-IRA prisoner turned academic Dr Anthony McIntyre
Henry McDonald
Ireland correspondent
The Guardian
Thursday 28 April 2016

US university Boston College has confirmed it will oppose legal moves to seize tapes from an ex-IRA volunteer turned academic for a controversial archive of former paramilitaries.

A subpoena was served on Boston College earlier this week from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Public Prosecution Service in Belfast to hand over recordings from Dr Anthony McIntyre for the Belfast Project.

The college has now said it will file a motion to have the subpoena quashed.

The subpoena to obtain McIntyre’s personal interviews has been served under the terms of a UK-US legal assistance treaty and the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003.

Boston College has been ordered to appear at the John Joseph Moakley courthouse in the city on 6 May to deliver McIntyre’s interviews.

As well as conducting interviews with other former IRA members, McIntyre himself gave interviews to a guest researcher.

Set up in 2001, the Belfast project interviewed those directly involved in paramilitary violence between 1969 and 1994 in Northern Ireland. Participants were promised that the interviews would be released only after their death.