Anthony McIntyre Statement in response to Gerry Adams' Comments on Boston College's Belfast Project

The Belfast Project was an important and valuable contribution to Irish history, one that society will be better for having rather than denied.

The abuse of this historical material by the PSNI and British State, who are intent on prosecuting the past in the absence of any mature politicians willing to come to grips with dealing with the past, is robbing the next generation not only of their own history - whichever perspective they come from - but runs the risk of condemning their future as well.


US federal judge William Young, who unlike Mr Adams has studied the contents of the Boston College archives, has stated in his judgement that it was ‘a bona fide academic exercise of considerable intellectual merit.’

In contrast, Mr Adams’ disavowal of his central role in the direction of the IRA campaign is lacking in anything that would remotely resemble intellectual merit or honesty. His narrative has been both self-serving and bogus. Mr Adams would find it difficult to lie in bed straight he is so crooked.

Mr Adams' concern for the McConville family is equally as fraudulent, as demonstrated by the shoddy falsehood he foisted on family members with his claim to them that he was in prison at the time of the disappearance of Jean McConville.

The truth that the family of Jean McConville deserve to have is a truth that would herald the end of Mr Adams’ political career. This is why he has done everything in his power to prevent it emerging.

Mr Adams’ attempts to insinuate that his critics are somehow egregious or dishonest because they do not subscribe to his false narrative of a peace process which depicts him as a man of peace with no account of his role as a man of war, is his own distorted personal attack. It is consistent with his long evident dictatorial impulse to control the narrative and marginalise dissent from it.

Mr Adams' time would be better spent securing an approach to the past that does not allow the British state to politically continue a cold war here that will only embed the conflict further. Attacking researchers for gathering Ireland's history serves nothing bar his career. How many republicans, and victims, must be sacrificed to protect his career?

18 comments:

  1. the silliest thing in adams' comment is people who don't agree with him are somehow anti-republican and doing a disservice to the our struggle!!!

    those who do the disservice are those who allowed the british to lead them by the nose to where we are at, alongside those who took the insurance policy offered by the british intelligence agencies in return for delivering the IRA to the british: the informers, who now live off their thirty pieces of silver in their luxury pads along the med and other such exotic locations.



    ReplyDelete
  2. Bet he has 1 of them letters in his back pocket.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 'frankie' thanks for the link.

    Mr Adams wasn't available for comment ... hmmn.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HenryJoy,

    I found that interesting 'Gerry wasn't available' too...

    I simply don't buy Adams line that he knew sweet fcuk all about anything that the PIRA got up too..

    Simply doesn't add up..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dont take this the wrong way but i do believe the people who made these tapes made the mistake of trusting america. The Irish mistakenly believe the yanks are on our side or at the very least honest brokers. I beg to differ. Lots of U.S citizens support the struggle for irish independence thus successive U.S administration have had to tread carefully to harness their vote. At the same time they have to keep the brits sweet as they are in reality strategically more important to america. Now that the struggle has been curtailed and tamed the yanks dont have to tread carefully as much so it is no problem now to help out their real friends, the british. I stated a while back on Ed maloneys site, that these tapes wouldve been far better being stored in a university in beijing,moscow,carracas,havana or anywhere that isnt a close ally of britain.
    History has shown the yanks were never on the side of irish republicanism. The amount of effort they devote to arming,funding,training and indeed encouraging 'rebels' all over the world is conclusive proof whose side they were really on during our conflict. Heck, they went out of their way to actually stymie militant republicanism from ever obtaining the upper hand against britain-they certainly werent going to allow the IRA to obtain 'game changers' like the stinger missile system.
    Whether we like it or not it looks like gerry adams has proved he was right not to admit he was ever in the 'RA as he would probably be digging a hole for himself long term, judging by the actions of the brits now. In fact it has probably strengthened his standing amongst the flock. And that indeed is unfortunate....for irish republicanism as a whole.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Whether we like it or not it looks like gerry adams has proved he was right not to admit he was ever in the 'RA

    Wolftone, Gerry Adams has already admitted he was in the PIRA. He sent a comm out using his name questioning Army policy. I'm not saying Gerry was an operator in the mould of Brendan Hughes, Anthony McIntrye or others..But he did admit it in a comm... Same as Martin McGuinness claiming he left in the mid 70's. Recently a comm surfaced from the Hblocks that refutes his claim.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Frankie was this the comm?

    The weakness of the IRA of that period was that instead of pursuing the war to it's bitter end come what may, they allowed unscrupulous politicians and so called "Peacemakers" to gain the upper hand. The result was the betrayal of the Fight for Freedom followed by a vicious and brutal Civil War and of course partition.

    It is to be hoped that the lesson of that period will not be lost on today's leaders. There is only one time to talk of peace and that is when the war has been won not while it is raging. The time to talk of peace is when the British have left Ireland, otherwise they will find some excuse to remain.

    Brownie Republican News , May 8, 1976.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dixie, I think it is the Easter 76 Brownie column in Republican News :
    "Rightly or wrongly, I am an IRA Volunteer and, rightly or wrongly, I take a course of action as a means to bringing about a situation in which I believe the people of my country will prosper."

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very possible Dixie. I'll go into the vortex (Google) and try and find it. I'm sure I read somewhere where he put his name to a comm (not brownie)<--stand to be corrected. I believe Brownie and Gerry Admas are one and the same..Same as MH and McIvor are one and the same..

    What pisses the 32A's me off about the whole peace process/Boston College is simple. if the PSNI were serious about clearing up unsloved murders why didn't they clean up their own back yard first and investigate the then RUC.. It would have shown 'sportsmanship' if nothing else. Instead they are rounding up OAP's on both sides of the oxymorons.

    Why don't they pull in the 24 Alleged Committee ' Members' for questioning???

    Billy Abernethy Chairman, Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee-"The Committee;" Ulster Bank executive; ex-RUC Reserve

    Hugh Ross Presbyterian Minister; President, Ulster Independence Committee

    Trevor Forbes OBE RUC Assistant Chief Constable and Head of Special Branch (retired)

    James Sands "Source A;" Hugh Ross's "messenger"

    John McCullagh Representative, Ulster Resistance paramilitary organisation

    Isobel McCulloch Performed secretarial services, booked halls etc.

    Graham Long ex-British Army, Loyalist paramilitary

    Nelson McCausland Belfast City Councillor; Ulster Unionist Party

    David Prentice Businessman; Prentice Garages, Portadown, Co. Armagh

    Albert Prentice Businessman; Prentice Garages, Portadown, Co. Armagh

    Charles Moffett Accountant, laundered money for arms shipments

    Richard Monteith Solicitor, Belfast and Portadown, Co. Armagh

    Cecil Kilpatrick* Member, Ulster Independence Committee; Hillsborough, Co. Down; ex-RUC Reserve

    Lewis Singleton Solicitor; Ulster Independence Committee [See below, Drew Nelson and William David Trimble MP]

    Philip Black Staff member, Computer Science Department, Queen's University, Belfast

    Sammy Abraham Businessman; Akraprint Ltd, Tandragee, Co. Armagh

    Will Davidson Full details on this individual to be supplied in a later edition.

    Alec Jamison Inner Force

    Robin Jackson Assassin; nickname The Jackal

    Billy Wright Assassin; nickname King Rat

    Dean McCullough Portadown/Lurgan Ulster Volunteer Force

    Alec Benson Assassin; Loyalist Retaliation and Defence Group, Lisburn, County Antrim

    Ken Kerr ex-British Army, Loyalist paramilitary [See Chapter 14]

    Ian Whittle RUC Inner Force, Portadown Representative

    Ask the MOD for all records (includes MRF, 14th intell or whatever name they morphed from)

    Why have the British Goverment locked up the Birmingham file away for 75yrs. Who are they trying to protect? They go after an oral history project?

    When I hear 'Dirty War, Filthy peace'..IMO words like 'dirty and filthy' are to sanatised for what happened and what is unfolding. For example if I have a pair of dirty jeans a quick spin in the washing machien and they come out clean. If my windows get fithly a coth and soapy water cleans them...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dixie

    Was that Adams comm from 10 Men Dead? I've only just started reading it again for the second time the last was in 1989.

    PSF should re-name their party to ' The party of rising tits' as they've gone completely fucking tits up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. From Slugger...( unearthed by Rusty Nail)...

    The mid-1970s saw significant developments for Republican News. In 1974 it changed to newspaper format, with eight large pages and at the end of the summer the paper moved to its first permanent offices at 170 Falls Road. In mid-1975 McCaughey was replaced as editor by Danny Morrison, one of the recently-released internees, who had a natural flair for publicity. Under the editorship of Morrison the paper was reorganised. Layout was made more attractive, the content was vastly improved and the paper became more professional and more relevant to the huge readership.

    Later in the year, and until his release in 1977, Gerry Adams, then an internee in Long Kesh, began to contribute a regular column to the paper under the by-line ‘Brownie’. And, in 1978, following his imprisonment in the H-Blocks at Long Kesh, the late Bobby Sands, using the pen-name ‘Marcella’, became a contributor to the paper, describing in detail the appalling conditions in the H-Blocks.


    Now revised, with the incriminating line removed, the relevant section reads:

    The mid-1970s saw significant developments for Republican News. In 1974 it changed to newspaper format, with eight large pages and at the end of the summer the paper moved to its first permanent offices at 170 Falls Road. In mid-1975 McCaughey was replaced as editor by Danny Morrison, one of the recently-released internees, who had a natural flair for publicity. Under the editorship of Morrison the paper was reorganised. Layout was made more attractive, the content was vastly improved and the paper became more professional and more relevant to the huge readership.

    In 1978, following his imprisonment in the H-Blocks at Long Kesh, the late Bobby Sands, using the pen-name ‘Marcella’, became a contributor to the paper, describing in detail the appalling conditions in the H-Blocks.


    Which version is the truth..The first or the air brushed edited version? I know which one i believe and it's not a revised version.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think Sean McPhilemy couldn't stand over some of the contents in the book, The Committee and paid $1 million in damages to the Prentice brothers.

    From a BBC page: "In the statement Mr McPhilemy and Roberts Rinehart said they "accept that David and Albert Prentice are not and have never been members of a committee as described in the hardback and paperback editions of the work entitled The Committee Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, and in the press release associated with it.

    "And that David and Albert Prentice have not been involved in any activities of the type described in The Committee.""

    LIBEL DAMAGES

    MORE LIBEL DAMAGES

    I also understand that re-posting the allegations could likewise be libelous.

    There may have been a committee or there may not but I think the story was that Loyalists purposefully fed McPhilemy misinformation to make the book look bad.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It is a tragedy that all the hard work, patience and dedication by the participants in the Boston College Tapes which was meant to educate and leave something of a cautionary tale for posterity has been hijacked to put more people into prisons.

    Surely if the participants are political since similar cases were previously treated as such by special statuses in prison and by the early release scheme under the GFA they are unlikely to re-offend and are not in need of rehabilitation? Surely modern prison is not for retribution but for protecting society through setting example and rehabilitation. The example has been set by the Good Friday Agreement and the precedent has shown that they are not common criminals but have a political label.

    Whatever you think of the alleged actions, the people involved didn't commit crimes if you accept them as such for a selfish motive but for a political one.

    The attempt at filling the vacuum left after the early-release scheme has been punished using actions not in line with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. Surely courts give weight to the intention of such international agreements?

    ReplyDelete
  14. It was Gerry himself that once said "One man's transparency is another's humiliation." although he said it about decommissioning I think - it could be applied here - the transparency of the Boston college project is too dangerous for him.

    BTW - the book (& documentary) based on the project that featured Brendan Hughes & David Ervine was once of the most profound pieces of literature on conflict I have ever read.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Did "Brownie" stand for brown trout or turd?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Again it is irrelevant whether he was in the IRA or not. If adams was involved in the operations he was rumoured to be involved in then it makes sense for him not to give the enemy a stick to beat him with by admitting anything. It wouldve led to more questions and allegations eg were you involved in bloody friday,jean mc conville? etc So to avoid awkward questions it makes sense to deny membership flatout.
    I want to stress i am not am apologist for adams et al but the vibe i get from this subject is that people will only be happy if hes arrested too? Whether we like it or not sinn fein are where they are but i do believe we are taking our eye off the real enemy and that is still the regime in london.
    We have to accept there are republicans in sinn fein just like i am sure there are republicans in FF,SDLP,GAA,etc. We might not agree with their view of republicanism but we are where we are.
    Personally adams should have been punished by the army for bringing the republican movement into disrepute by shielding a paedophile but the blame for that goes further than just him-i am sure there were plenty just like him that brought disrepute on the movement.
    Adams and that even bigger slimeball mcguinness wont be around forever so i dont believe energy should be wasted on them.If anything we should be playing the regime in london at their own game ie exposing and therefore discrediting everything about them. Whether that be the corruption their ruling classes get up to or even their care home scandals of systematic paedophilia that they are trying to keep a lid on. Anything and everything must be thrown at the london regime because there is only one winner if republicans continue to throw dirt at each other. And as an add on, the free state regime should not be immune from our ire as in my humble opinion the london regime has its tentacles firmly placed in instituions down there too.

    ReplyDelete
  17. From useless general’s now useless politicians the farce will unfortunately be televised.
    Curious how they conclude the project is shoddy as they go about rubbishing it.
    How do they arrive at that conclusion if they have not read it end to end?

    Irony if SF had been behind the project they would be bragging how important it is to understanding the Paramilitary world.

    Wolf Tone,

    I would agree with you to a point though SF has abandoned traditional republican politics now sheltering under the British umbrella.
    Having a dig at SF is no different than having a dig at the Brits.

    How can republicans take SF serious when Mary Lou “welcomes” Ivor Bell’s arrest? Why do they refuse to protest against selective interment and State policing.
    As I said I catch your drift unfortunately it is a message that needs to land on the door of SF as they continuously dismantle republicanism to appease the unionists.

    ReplyDelete