Obama Administration join British on fishing expedition in witch hunt against Gerry Adams (The Boston College Affair)

[C. Flower]

Independence though wont be regained without leaving the EU. Would you acknowledge that?

What degree of Independence are you looking for ?

A sovereign, united Ireland ?

That would take a lot more than leaving the EU.

I think we should prepare to leave the Eurozone and that we should keep our natural resources and infrastructure in state hands, properly nationalised.

I think these are tactical questions.

The EU as an institution is undemocratic and is as united as a bag of cats. It needs to be replaced by something made by the people of the region.

Why do you think Iceland wants to go into the Eurozone, and Syriza wants to keep Greece in it btw ?

[Sam Lord]

The EU as an institution is undemocratic and is as united as a bag of cats. It needs to be replaced by something made by the people of the region.

lol.

I think the question was ... do you agree that Ireland should leave the EU?

The "left" in Ireland likes to avoid this question. Or answer it in some incomprehensible way. It is part of the general malaise...

[Apjp]

What degree of Independence are you looking for ?

A sovereign, united Ireland ?

That would take a lot more than leaving the EU.

I think we should prepare to leave the Eurozone and that we should keep our natural resources and infrastructure in state hands, properly nationalised.

I think these are tactical questions.

The EU as an institution is undemocratic and is as united as a bag of cats. It needs to be replaced by something made by the people of the region.

Why do you think Iceland wants to go into the Eurozone, and Syriza wants to keep Greece in it btw ?

Well of course we should be looking to reunify the country especially with recent events of devolution across Britain and in the North and the Scottish referendum on the way, but lets be honest, how would that be viable if we stay as we are down here? Unfortunately, we can only deal with things down here first. The south needs to leave the EU. My idea of independence and full sovereignty is not restricted to ending the border, and I don't think yours is either. There is no point in side stepping my point though by saying that in order for the south to regain independence we need to do so much more than leave the EU. I did not mention a United Ireland, because with everyone in the south faced with complete deprivation and serfdom in the upcoming years, it wouldn't exactly be the first on my priority list. The North is important, but not as immediately so as regaining independence for the south, where most of us live.

I disagree with any replacement of the EU. I think it would be folly to enter into any political union ever again, and I would have a good long hard look at recent Irish history from 1800-2012 to see what happens in such unions where inevitably, no matter who is in power, bigger countries will dominate. The idea of self determination is quite a simple concept.

I don't think the Icelandic people want to go near Europe or the euro after the last few years. I think that's probably a business move by those who were hurt by the currency drop. I gather Syriza have indeed said they want to stay in the euro. I'm flabbergasted as to why any political party wants that but opposes the Diktats. The euro facilitates the imposition of such diktats as it ensures the permanent surrender of economic sovereignty. My own view is that if young people like Saoirse et al are serious about SF changing things they need to be trying to pressure SF to adopt a strategy to leave the EU should they be elected. I'm in favour of being a country. It worked in Brehon times and for many other countries. The World has got too greedy and too many in power are suited by the status quo. I'm not sure it's wise to try and replace one political union with another. I think it'd be unworkable and against our interests.

[C. Flower]

Press Release

As is well known by now, a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigation in to the disappearance and death of Jean McConville in 1972 led in May last year to the serving of subpoenas by the U.S. Department of Justice on the Belfast Project oral history archive at Boston College. The subpoenas sought, inter alia, the interviews of Dolours Price, a former IRA activist from Belfast.

Lead IRA researcher Dr. Anthony McIntyre and myself have been fighting ever since to have the subpoenas dismissed in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic so as to protect the confidentiality and safety of the interviewees and of Dr McIntyre and to safeguard First Amendment rights in the United States.

Since last weekend there have been two media reports, one in the British-based Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the other on CBS television news, implying or suggesting that admissions by Dolours Price to them of involvement in the McConville disappearance were also made in her interviews for the Belfast Project. It was a similar claim two years ago that this admission had figured in her Belfast project interviews that began this saga of the Boston College subpoenas.

The Sunday Telegraph/CBS reports conflict with and contradict an affidavit I lodged in the Belfast High Court recently saying that the McConville disappearance did not figure in those interviews. I wish to address this matter in this statement and put it to rest for once and for all.

Throughout this stressful and taxing legal and political fight, my priority has always been to safeguard the confidentiality and interests of those who participated. That remains my priority. But I also have the responsibility to clarify and correct errors when they occur.

Quite a few years have passed since Dolours Price was interviewed as part of the Belfast Project at Boston College and it has been during these recent years that her health has deteriorated in a quite alarming way. Without dwelling on the distressing details, which are well known to those familiar with her history and have been published elsewhere, it has been evident to us that her grasp of past events has deteriorated in proportion to her increased susceptibility to outside suggestions.

It has long been our conviction that it was these factors that led in the first place to the serving of the subpoenas in 2011. A newspaper report in February 2010 carried the same erroneous implication that she had talked about the McConville disappearance in the Belfast Project interviews as was carried this week in the Sunday Telegraph and CBS. The first report led directly to the subpoenas, the second set have served to seemingly justify them. But both are wrong.


So let me once again put the matter on record, with all the strength and force I can muster: Dolours Price did not mention Jean McConville nor talk about what had happened to her in her interviews for the Belfast Project at Boston College.

Let me make another couple of points. The hue and cry that has followed the recent media reports demonstrates that the warnings we gave at the outset of this affair that these subpoenas, unless curbed, could have the potential to cause a crisis for the peace process in Northern Ireland were well-founded. Some thought us alarmist at the time but I doubt if many believe that now.

The demands that have been made this week for arrests or resignations have the potential to imperil the survival of the power-sharing administration in Belfast as anyone familiar with Northern Ireland's politics knows full well. They also have the potential to significantly increase the threat to the lives of those who took part in the project, not least the project’s IRA researcher, Dr. Anthony McIntyre.

That all this is happening is the direct consequence of the failure of political leaders to create a mechanism to deal honestly and without feelings of vengeance with the past, to address the needs of victims in a way that does not imperil the future. The need to rectify that failure is now urgent.

The media reports this week also demonstrate that if the PSNI wishes to investigate this matter there are and have been many other avenues they can pursue without raiding the Boston College archive, infringing American First Amendment rights and placing Dr McIntyre’s life in peril and his family in danger. The Belfast Project archive could and should remain confidential without any prejudice to law enforcement inquiries.

Furthermore it is evident from the recent media reports that Jean McConville was taken into the Irish Republic by the IRA and since her remains were found on the southern side of the Border, it is also reasonable to assume she was killed in that territory. Why then are the authorities in the Irish Republic allowing the PSNI free rein over an investigation to which they arguably have a superior jurisdictional claim? Perhaps a question to this effect could be addressed to the government in Dublin?

Ed Moloney

[C. Flower]

There is so much that I don't understand about the Boston Project. Why, if this was confidential information, was it collated in the first place ?

Why is Ed Moloney discussing what is, and is not, in a witness record ? Is this not confidential ?

Why was there ever the idea about that confidentiality would be respected by either the British or US States, if they could find a means of getting past it ?

[C. Flower]

lol.

I think the question was ... do you agree that Ireland should leave the EU?

The "left" in Ireland likes to avoid this question. Or answer it in some incomprehensible way. It is part of the general malaise...

This is not an in principle question to me. It is a matter of tactics.

I think the point is to bring an end to it, and overrun it. Not beat a retreat.
There have been hundreds of thousands of workers out on the streets in Europe this week. Do you want to step away from that ?

I think we should be ready and prepared to go (in good order, with proper contingency plans to keep people working and eating), and to call others to come with us - the moment might well come when that is the right thing to do. But also ready to make a run, with joint forces from across Europe, to overturn the present arrangements and replace them with democracy.

[riposte]

Is it on youtube?

No Saoirse . I saw it live.

[Dr. FIVE]

Boston College appeal rejected. US court says Dolours Price tapes should be handed over

http://www.scribd.com/doc/124994497/...olleges-Motion

[C. Flower]

Boston College appeal rejected. US court says Dolours Price tapes should be handed over

http://www.scribd.com/doc/124994497/...olleges-Motion

The US State was always going to support the UK State on this one.

There was a lot of naive belief in the GFA process - there was never any general amnesty - and in academic institutions and in the US Government - in the thinking that it was secure to deposit information in the US securely.

With Sinn Fein looking like a serious contender for Government in Ireland, there may well be efforts made by the U.K. Government to do damage to its prospects.

[C. Flower]

lol.

I think the question was ... do you agree that Ireland should leave the EU?

The "left" in Ireland likes to avoid this question. Or answer it in some incomprehensible way. It is part of the general malaise...

I think that if any one country in the EU made a break for it and tried to lay the foundations of socialism, it is certain that others would try to follow suit.
That was the case after 1917, and was the case with the democratic revolutions of Arab Spring. The U.S. used to call it the "domino theory." These countries would work together.

A country that simply withdrew, and attempted to carry on as a market economy, would have little or no impact on others.

[C. Flower]

Ed Moloney now on RTE in a hysterical rant that Power Sharing would fall and the sky fall in in the contents of interviews held at Boston are released.

Anthony McIntyre interview did not involve Price discussing Gerry Adams, he says.

"Other Dolours Price interviews that were not part of the Boston Project now held in Boston"

Wtf ?

Adams has consistently said that he was not Price's commanding officer in the IRA, which she said he was.

The College is still trying to keep release of interviews it says, but as they seem to be placing faith in its alumni John Kerry are likely to be disappointed.