Boston College Irish tapes - the truth about Ed Moloney’s book and letting the cat out of the bag

Ed Moloney

Journalist Ed Moloney has been busy convincing everyone he is the victim in the Boston College tapes fiasco. The reality is different.

Put frankly, if he hadn’t decided to make some money for himself from his book on the tapes, Voices from the Grave, none of the issues that have now arisen around the tapes would have happened. The tapes by now would have quietly become the preserve of academics and historians.

Moloney’s intent was clear from the beginning. He hired anti-Gerry Adams researcher and dissident spokesman Anthony McIntyre and only interviewed IRA figures who hated Adams for various reasons -- hardly the mark of a dispassionate researcher/historian.

I have long maintained that Moloney was out to get Adams when he decided to do the tapes, and persuaded Boston College to underwrite the project and give it academic recognition – something the college now deeply regrets.

Moloney has denied all of this, but in a recent reply to a Unionist writer, Water Ellis, on his own blog site, he seems to admit it.

Here is the exchange in which Ellis congratulates Moloney for getting an extension from the Supreme Court on the tapes issue.

(Moloney erroneously presents this as a great victory. It is not, and merely a procedural issue. I do not believe there is a hope in hell the Supreme Court will hear the case.)

MOLONEY: “Ah Walter! I had thought you dead and gone. Never a losing cause, just keeping my promise to people. If I do have an obsession it is with outing liars, which is why I write about Lance Armstrong! There is another outrageous liar with whom we are both familiar, me perhaps more than you. Wears a beard and used to puff on a pipe a lot. Write about him too.”

ELLIS: “I hope you’re not suggesting that a certain one-time barkeep, for whom power was the ultimate performance-enhancing drug, will one day soon be stripped of his many titles.”

MOLONEY:  “A former barkeep with a power complex? Whom could you possibly be talking about?”

It is an interesting exchange, revealing as Belfast Republican writer Danny Morrison says, Moloney’s true mindset on this issue. It has been a “Get Adams” undertaking all the time.

Morrison writes, “Moloney, unthinkingly, in an email to Walter Ellis... reveals the whole purpose of his sham historic project!”

I have to agree with Morrison. Irish America has been taken for a ride by an individual whose main objective is to destroy Adams.

"Outing liars" by his very own words, meaning Adams, was Moloney’s main intent all along. He hid it well under a cloak of academic respectability unwittingly given to him by Boston College.

Now Irish America needs to make clear that it is against the handing over of the tapes to the British government, but also that they are not blinkered by what was actually being attempted here – nothing less than setting up Adams and endangering the peace process. Irish America should not be fooled to believe anything else.

Moloney is a strange character. He recently recounted two utterly fictional conversations he had with me from the 1990s on his blog in which I was allegedly taken to task for using his columns without attribution.

It never happened, I can say with every ounce of conviction I have. But like the Boston tapes saga, Moloney appears to ignore inconvenient truths when it suits him.

Latest "Get Gerry Adams effort" is led by deeply troubled woman -- Dolours Price has long history of mental illness after force-feeding

Political activist and former volunteer for the Provisional IRA Dolours Price
(Photo: Pacemaker)

Long ago and far away there seems little doubt that Gerry Adams was a senior figure in the IRA in West Belfast.

How could he not be? His neighborhood was under siege from the British Army and every able-bodied man back in the days when the Troubles were at their height was involved.

What is interesting about recent attempts to get Adams to admit the past is how the context is never given.

Decades of  complete Unionist misrule led to a tinder-box situation after civil rights marchers were batoned and beaten off the streets in 1968 and 1969.

It all  inevitably exploded and then all hell broke loose when the British Army was called in to defend the indefensible status quo we had Bloody Sunday and a fully fledged IRA campaign. That was the Northern Ireland that Gerry Adams grew up in

Dolours Price, now Gerry Adams chief accuser was caught up in it too, coming from a strong Republican family.

In March 1973 she was arrested on board a plane going to Ireland just as a 300 pound bomb detonated at the Old Bailey courts and one person was killed and many injured Her sister Marian was arrested alongside her.

Her time in prison did not go well. She and her sister went on a hunger strike and were force- fed for 200 days an horrific experience which has caused much of the mental trauma she experiences today.

Almost 40 years on, Dolours Price the former wife of actor Stephen Rea, is sadly still suffering the effects.

“She had a history of psychiatric problems and substance abuse,” said journalist Ed Moloney.

“She has been diagnosed with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], had been hospitalized repeatedly, and....(is)  taking strong psychotropic drugs.

Indeed, on the day she spoke to [The Irish News] she was on day leave from St Patrick’s psychiatric hospital in Dublin.” Moloney said referring to the controversial interview she gave  to that newspaper where she first alleged Adams sent informers to their death.

She is unrepentant about her past and makes no bones that she wants to destroy Adams and the process if she can.

The Irish Sunday Times quoted her this weekend  saying she defended her acts while in the IRA and actually enjoyed them. “It was an exciting time, there was no real order or structure to everyday life, the war had taken away all normal routine ... I should be ashamed to admit there was fun in it in those days,” she said.

The same Sunday Times article notes that in 2001, Price was found guilty  in a Dublin court of stealing prescriptions. “She seems to have an alcohol problem but is taking steps to address it,” said Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick .

Five years later Price was disallowed access to Maghaberry prison, where she was visiting a dissident republican prisoner “She was verbally abusive and threatening and was in no condition to be allowed into the visiting area,” said a senior Prison Service source.

She has also received three convictions for theft in recent years and has attempted suicide.

Little wonder Adams does not feel it is politic to pursue her accusations against him in court.

Last weekend he stated: “I am not of a mind to trail Dolours Price through the courts . . . she is unwell.”

Those who are putting her up to the statements she is making, given that she is a seriously ill woman have a lot to answer for it seems to me.

She should be allowed time and space to try and recuperate from her many problems It is sad to see her used as a “Get Gerry Adams” vehicle by sections of the media.

Thanks for the memories - 25-years of the Irish Voice

Where did the 25 years go? Is there a thief of time who has accordioned all the years together so that 25 years ago really seems like five?

Is it really 25 years ago that the pressmen at the Evergreen Printing plant in Belmar, New Jersey pressed the button and started the presses on Volume 1 Number 1 of the Irish Voice?

I remember my mother and brother were there, and my best friend Eddie Holt and a bottle of champagne and a very late night....

I remember the first issue with its bold headline "We’ll Never Return” based on a survey of young Irish undocumented who had washed up on America’s shores.

Some things never change, even after 25 years.

In that issue we featured little Kathleen Flannelly, daughter of a great friend, Adrian Flannelly, sitting in the Sam Maguire Cup, the trophy for the All-Ireland football champions.

Now she’s an accomplished lawyer, a woman of the world. Was that really 25 years ago?

There was John Spain and Cormac MacConnell, and they are still there all these years later charting the goings on in Ireland, urban and rural, and they too must feel that déjà vu moment with Ireland in bad shape again and the political class failing the people.

A strange memory, shortly before our first issue when a new fangled machine arrived in the office. It was a fax machine, and we all gaped in wonderment as the front page of The Irish Times came crackling over the wires. The Internet was still a pipedream.

Good and bad moments crowd in. The day Debbie McGoldrick, an Irish Echo refugee, took over as editor of Irish Voice and whipped the paper into shape for once and for all is among the best.

Among the worst, the suicide of a young Irish construction worker in the Bronx who hung himself after being mercilessly exploited by his own.

The best -- Merrifield Madness, when thousands of Irish descended on a Virginia post office in October of 1991 to mail their Morrison visa applications in a night to remember.

Best again -- sitting in the stands at Giants Stadium as Ireland beat Italy in a World Cup shocker in 1994.

Worst -- the news story that someone had placed an innocuous classified ad with us looking for a few strong men. It turned out he wanted them in order to murder his wife. Incredible but true.

Best -- waking up on a freezing morning one January to learn that the Clinton White House, over the objections of the British State Department, CIA, FBI, etc. had given a visa to the U.S. for Gerry Adams.

Best -- standing in the center of Belfast as hundreds of thousands chanted the name of Bill Clinton as the American president, unbelievably, visited the city.

Worst -- reading of the incredible tragedy of Phoebe Prince, a little Irish girl bullied to death when she moved to Massachusetts.  She took her own life in 2010.

Best -- President Clinton attending our event at the Plaza Hotel as Irish American of the Year. Standing at the traveling White House podium introducing him was a surreal experience. At times like that you really do feel you have made it in America.

Worst -- writing my toughest ever column on the tragic death of my beautiful nephew Rory Staunton, who died needlessly of a bacterial infection at age 12 in April. It does not come tougher than that.

Best -- getting to meet you, the Irish Voice readers in so many places over so many years and hearing your feedback, good and bad, on what we do.

And to all those advertisers who have supported us over the years – thanks again. You made this Irish emigrant’s dreams come true.

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams as Ireland’s next Prime Minister? -- New poll makes it a possibility after the next election

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams as Ireland’s next prime minister may not be as fanciful as many think.

The real prospect of Sinn Fein leading the next Irish government is now apparent.

The latest opinion poll in the Irish Times shows Sinn Fein leaping to 24 per cent support with fellow opposition members Fianna Fail at 17 per cent and independents at 15 per cent.

Gerry Adams is now the most popular party leader after an eight point jump put him ahead of Enda Kenny
That combined total of opposition votes puts them at 56 per cent, well ahead of the governing coalition of Fine Gael and Labor who amass only 42 per cent of the vote.

It is clear that Sinn Fein are having the Labour party for lunch, the Labourites are down to 10 per cent with the vast majority of their voters shifting to Sinn Fein.

Even Fianna Fail, architects of the economic mess, are making a comeback because they are in opposition

It is inevitable in a massive economic downturn that the government parties take the heat. But the Labour Party is especially being decimated.

It is always thus it seems. Minority parties in governments --see Liberal Party in England, are usually the ones who take the brunt of the criticism.

The poll is yet another milestone for Sinn Fein who have commenced an inexorable march towards power in Ireland North and South.

While the shadow of the North’s war loomed large even in the recent presidential election, as time passes such concerns will disappear.

The next election is not due until about 2015, by which time Sinn Fein will have had several years to consolidate power.

They happen to be very good at that and are finally luring good young candidates in the Irish Republic to match the calibre of their leaders in Northern Ireland.

The European treaty poll this week should pass, according to all the experts and polls but one wonders if there is not a hidden no vote lurking in the undergrowth.

Certainly, given the statistics of this latest poll, if anti-government voters turn out in numbers they could easily defeat it.

There will be many nervous faces until the votes are counted.

End to ETA war in Basque country a great boost for Sinn Fein and Irish peace process strategy

Arnaldo Otegi and Gerry Adams, 2007

The debate about Sinn Fein and their role in Irish politics will continue long beyond this current presidential election in Ireland.

But there is no question that they have now helped create another major opportunity for peace in the long running guerrilla war in Basque country on the French/Spanish border.

ETA, the IRA equivalent, have announced an end to their armed campaign after meeting with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and several other peacemakers, including former Irish leader Bertie Ahern and former UN Secretary Genera Kofi Annan.

It seems the lessons of the Irish peace process are many and varied and that its positive impact is still being seen worldwide.

ETA tried and failed to end their campaign several times, but this time it seems final. Their political wing Batasuna has been ineffective, unlike Sinn Fein in convincing ETA to take that last vital step.

That now appears to have changed

There is great credit due to all concerned.

Gerry Adams has welcomed the ETA announcement that they will end their armed conflict in Spain.

"I welcome the decisive and positive terms of ETA’s response to Monday’s ‘Declaration’ in Donostia-San Sebastian by the International Conference group.

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READ MORE:
Martin McGuinness insists he is a ‘peacemaker to be trusted’

Wacky Irish presidential race gets even stranger

Dana’s husband claims someone tried to kill her in tire blow out
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“Following our deliberations the International Group expressed the opinion that ‘it is possible to end, the last armed confrontation in Europe’.

“We called upon ETA to “make a public declaration of the definitive cessation of all armed action and to request talks with the governments of Spain and France to address exclusively the consequences of the conflict.

“I believe that their statement today meets that requirement and I would urge the governments of Spain and France to welcome it and agree to talks exclusively to deal with the consequences of the conflict.

“These next steps should be about promoting reconciliation, addressing the issue of victims and recognizing that a serious effort has to be made to heal personal and social wounds.

“There are other issues which will need to be addressed and which can act as confidence-building measures within the process.

“For example, among these are the issue of prisoners and of demilitarizing the environment and of respecting and acknowledging the democratic rights of all political parties and treating them as equals.

“At a time when Batasuna is banned and leaders like Arnaldo Otegi, who is totally committed in my view to peace, are imprisoned, the use of confidence-building measures by the Spanish state is very important.”

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READ MORE:
Martin McGuinness insists he is a ‘peacemaker to be trusted’

Wacky Irish presidential race gets even stranger


Dana’s husband claims someone tried to kill her in tire blow out
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