Anthony McIntyre Responds to Sinn Fein Criticism

This morning Sinn Fein released a statement in which its leader, Gerry Adams, slammed both Boston College's Belfast Project and two of the researchers, Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney. This afternoon Anthony McIntyre delivered his response to the Sinn Fein statement.

Mr Adams complains that he was offered no opportunity to respond to claims made in the Boston College oral history project.

Mr Adams has time out of number availed of the opportunity to assert that he had no hand, act or part in the abduction and killing of Jean McConville and that he played no hand, act or part in the IRA.

The courtesy of responding to accusations was something never granted to Jean McConville. Mr Adams has had many opportunities that she was denied and will always be denied.

His seeming objection that only a minority of the interviewees was sympathetic to his parliamentary career and political project is valid. Yet it does not invalidate the value of the exercise. Boston judge, William Young who read all the republican interviews, described the project as a bona fide academic exercise of considerable intellectual merit.

One purpose of an oral history project is to capture a number of narratives that would otherwise be unobtainable. That they might not conform to Mr Adams’ worldview is not a consideration for the historian. Mr Adams’ concern is that there are republican narratives which depict him as a Pinochet rather than a Mandela and for that reason he would rather see them smothered.

Truth recovery is a complex and difficult procedure as was demonstrated during Mr Adams’ evidence in a recent Belfast rape trial. There is no one size fits all template for the procedure. The Boston College project is one among a number of methods that can legitimately be employed. Mr Adams is absolutely free to record his history of a life outside of the IRA. On many occasions he has.

Boston College’s decision to offer to return the interviews to the people who donated them is something the institution could and should have done when urged by myself and Ed Moloney to take action of this type or something similar once it was clear that the college was in possession of an endangered archive. Instead Boston College denied the right of return for material not subject to subpoena. Its wilful refusal to take such measures led to a number of interviews subsequently being handed over to the British police by the college in the wake of a second subpoena.

The decision to ask for their material to be returned is solely a matter for the interviewees.

The one point of agreement between myself and Mr Adams is that the British state is not in the slightest interested in dealing honestly with the past.

Unfortunately, neither is Mr Adams.

39 comments:

  1. Methinks the bold Gerry does protest to much, had it not been Jean Mc Conville or some of the other disappeared it may be Peter Rodgers or any of an ever growing number of ex comrades sick to the back teeth of his and his cronies hypocrisy, the past has not nor will not go away Gerrybroy indeed to finish on the Shakespeare theme like Cesar you will eventually be stabbed in the back by those nearest you and the innocent victims of your machinations like Shylock will have their pound of flesh .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Coherent, well written and brilliant response Anthony.

    Excellent point scoring, covert jabs throughout the piece and a hay-maker to finish too.

    Definitely this round to Anthony and Carrie.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anthony did you do a tape and say what you were involved in while in the IRA? doubt it!
    Moneymoneymoney

    ReplyDelete
  4. Highly melodramatic Marty!! Or in simpler terms he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. Gerry's weapon of choice was political careerism. The plot thickens. It aint over til Mary Lou sings lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Read Ed Maloney's response to Adams also and the fact there is so little about the McConville case in so many hundreds of interviews, (less than 6%)which Adams hasn't read just says it all really. Gerry unfortunately thinks everyone is as adoring as the sheeple in SF. That's his delusion and his problem. Great response Mackers. Hardly a Get-Gerry project at all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Or squeals Larry in the more traditional Q$£ fashion.

    ReplyDelete
  7. did Adams, the food is inedible, allege in this latest news conference that Ed Maloney has called on Adams to be shot. Maybe he has, but if he hasn't isn't that slander of the most dangerous kind. Are these the alleged death threats to Adams that the bright side of the PSNI, and SF are talking about. Not a very good start by even a fly by night prisoner rights activist to launch his campaign by labeling and misrepresenting others.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your second last sentence is interesting in that, as Orwell wrote, 'he who controls the present controls the past'. Gerry and his cabal (to use SF favorite word of the week, still wish we all lived in their Ingsoc maliciously observed by Big Brother Gerry and their 'Thought Police'
    I grew up in the unionist one and have no desire to have the SF version imposed upon us.
    I can now only pray the electorate in the Free State waken up on time to the lies peddled by SF in either jurisdiction and return other parties, or preferably non aligned candidates to council and the euro enemy!
    I've said here before, in respect to the BC debacle, the real loosers will be future generations who will not easily access direct, first-hand accounts, of what happened here during the latter phase of our war.
    Equally unfortunate is that, following this shambles (RUC created) other combatants in other nations, Chechnya, Palestine, Syria et. al will think before committing the facts to future record with a third party and so the real truth will be lost while Gerry, David and Barrack maintain their control of what we can, and cannot, think!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Here,s a conundrum folks, quisling $inn £eind micro minister Martbroy Mc Guinness said that there was a dark side to the local po-lice farce,he threatened to withdraw his and his cronies support, then surprise surprise the Felons newest member Gerry Itwasntme walks and immediately declares his support for the local po-lice farce, my question folks is this ,are these wankers any relation to the grand old duke of York.?

    ReplyDelete
  10. The PSNI decide to release Gerry Adams because the Belfast Project tapes are only 'hearsay'...

    Why did Ivor Bell end up being charged on the same evidence...

    Gerry Adams admitted in his press conference that when he press the PSNI about who one of the letters was.. their response was Ivor Bell denied it was him..


    Something isn't adding up.

    I doubt tonights spotlight will shed much light on the subject.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Could it be that Adams was in Antrim listening to all those tapes ?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Marty... All I know is something isn't adding up..


    BBC Spotlight 10.35 GMT
    After the arrest and release of Gerry Adams, Declan Lawn reports on how the Boston College history project shattered the IRA's code of silence and asks what it could mean for the political process.

    (anyone outside of the six counties who has trouble accessing BBC NI... click here if IE say's about the security cert etc being iffy..... IGNORE.. IT'S A FALSE POSITIVE.. Just click I understand the risk..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Shattered the IRA code of silence?
    Sorry but I had to take a couple of minutes there to let the wife find the smelling salts!! That was a close call, passed out laughing, couldn't get a breath.

    Scap/Donaldson/Raymondo and ALL the countless others. Spare me, only people silent in that outfit are the dead they touted into the ground and continue to make a living off the back of to this day!!

    I think there was possibly an error in releasing any of the memoirs too soon, but it is still hardly evidence. The RUC made it a dirty issue in my view.

    But an IRA code of silence....ballix, SF code of partition/UK/Stormont/Decommissioning/lying for a living. Sounds like sensationalist shite at 10.30pm....CAN'T WAIT!! uuurgh.

    ReplyDelete
  14. BTW Mackers...I saw you on tv tonight. Not good lad, yer 6-pack is near as defunct as me-own. Get a grip lad!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I've been observing recent events from west Central Scotland. Bobby Storey said, 'we're not going away you know!'

    It's high time that Adams, McGuinness, Kelly and co. left the scene. Sinn Fein looked ridiculous over the arrest of Adams. McGuinness' statements, Storey's tub thumping, the mural, the pictures of the Dear Leader with Mandela, the intimidating language, the demonisation of Anthony McIntyre and the dismissal of the oral history project as 'dubious', all strike me as exposing Sinn Fein for the relic of the past which it is. An outmoded historical form which may have made sense at one time, but certainly doesn't anymore. Sinn Feinn are the ones who have betrayed the principles of the republican movement, not the oral history project.

    The way that certain individuals have been using the word 'tout' recently has been a disgrace. That clown Morrison may be too easily dismissed as the joke figure that he is. His branding of Anthony as 'McIntout' is actually rather pernicious and wholly unjustified.

    The view from where I'm standing is that you will never deal with the past unless the kind of witness testimony recorded in the Belfast project is available for future generations to study and reflect upon. Anthony was right on Spotlight tonight. In order to understand the question of why the conflict emerged and took the course that it did we must have answers to these questions about what happened. Of course by hearing and reading many narratives of the past we can understand the many perspectives on the past. Adams and Co are only interested in serving up the version of the past which suits them and their increasingly deranged political trajectory. It seemed obvious to me from all that I've seen, read and heard lately on these matters is that Anthony is the man that comes out of this with his integrity intact. Adams, Morrison and co. are a disgrace. They are the traitors.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Firstly, I strongly disagree with the Boston Project for a night number of reasons. Not least because the naming of alleged IRA Activists isn't right. As it wasn't individuals who conducted attacks but the collective. As such, ordinary Volunteers shouldn't have been named. In saying that, it's a matter of conscience of those who spoke and we're recorded. That's just my personal opinion. Regards the arrests of people including Adams and others. I'm not at all surprised given the long arm of Imperialists. What I'm so annoyed at is the continued suffering of the McConnville Clann. As well as, the twisted graffiti and Threats issued against Mackers and anyone else involved in the Boston Project. Which is very, very wrong and can possibly hurt peoples familes! These comments are being used to inflame the whole situation, much in the same way that happened after the killing of VOl. Joe O'Connor.

    ReplyDelete
  17. John Muldoon,

    Fancy seeing you here in the micro-anti-peace-anti-SF neck of the internet forrest.

    That’s funny you have been listening to ABBA, Money, Money, Money. In a related story it’s been reported that Gerry Adams has been blaring “The Winner Takes It ALL.

    You are starting to sound obsessive you appear to think about Anthony in a not so healthy way.
    I can't fault you for denying your SF support anyone with an ounce of Irish pride would do the same.

    ReplyDelete
  18. “The courtesy of responding to accusations was something never granted to Jean McConville. Mr Adams has had many opportunities that she was denied and will always be denied.”

    Not sure about this AM....was she not warned on several occasions to desist from her activities?

    When you look at the photographs of who was present at his ‘freedom rallies’ all you see is the regular esoteric minions and their relatives. That group is getting smaller by the day. And who in their right mind gave Storey the microphone? That could have nastily back-fired on them, couldn’t it? Is he really the head of intelligence...Scaps replacement? Sometimes I often think were the Brits always continually scratching their heads with decisions like those and contemplating what the fuck are they up to now? Baffling isn't it!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. While I watched the quisling $inn £eind president for life and the Felons newest member,grinning through privately paid for(who mentioned the average industrial wage)bleached white teeth, I wondered was his brain bleached as well lecturing his assembled flock of employees in the Balmoral Hotel(No jokes about q$£ and royalty again) my mind went wandering and I thought of the naked body of a vol friend of mine dumped on the border with a bullet in the back of the head ,more than likely dispatched by that tout Scap ,his crime was he breached the rules of the Green Book, I thought of big Doc smiling. a grand big lad and his mum and dad duped and left to suffer the memory of watching their son die a long and slow painful death,Vol Jim Mc Kernan another friend shot in the back on the Andersonstown rd while on active servuice,indeed I could continue but hey ya get my drift I hope,then I listen to Adams talk about the" dark side" and the poor oul tv nearly became another innocent victim of our troubles,Gerry Itwasntme would know all about the "dark Side" he is very much part of it,then I cheered up a bit when I thought about Bob DOH Brains ranting to his rent a mob,my thoughts were "thats the chairman of the party lol they are fucked"those quislings in $inn£eind who rant about touts and the dark side need only take a look in the nearest mirror.the Boston college project was taken down by the "dark side "imo because the testimonies provided would have shone a light on who really was the "Dark Side" with the death of this project I get the feeling that both Q$£ and MI5 collectively had a sigh of relief.

    ReplyDelete
  20. JUST ON THE MARKET.
    Quisling $inn £einds latest T_Shirt ,a one size fits all and only available in royal blue.it bears the legend
    WE DONT NEED SEX....THE PARTY FUCKS US EVERY DAY.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Another glaring example of quisling $inn £einds hypocrisy ,another man has been re arrested today re the Jean Mc Conville murder,yet no mural is being painted ,no rent a mob is being gathered ,no press conference is being called to condemn the cabal of po-lice from the dark side, but it does seem that Bob DOH Brains has gone away, he cant be heard anywhere .

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hearing Gerry Itwasntme has been arrested again, apparently they are questioning him over the thousands of Liverpool fans who disappeared this week

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ardoyne Republican,
    How else are people to make sense of what happened? As Anthony said in the spotlight program..What about WW2? There are lots of names mentioned there about who did what to Jews, Romas etc... Or the war in 'Nam...loads of books on that war about who did what to whom and why. Are they wrong...?

    The only mistake Anthony made was releasing Voices. But he released it because he kept a promise to a friend.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Frankie

    totally agree. We all have our true friends close to our hearts. Dead and alive. I too think it was a blip BUT the Brits went after smoke up their holes and SF as usual went into fictional overdrive.

    I do think though it has really given people a marker, as well as a lough. Nothing to fear, but fear itself. AND sergeant Bilco!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Larry,
    I'm now more convinced than ever that the Belfast project has more truth than spin. Who is telling the truth within PSF? Bobby Storey said loud and clear..."We haven't gone away, you know".. Gerry Adams 24hrs later tells the worls.."The IRA have gone away"..

    I believe that the PSNI had the same evidence to charge Gerry Adams with that have charged Ivor Bell with and they wanted to charge him but were told not to. I believe it is as simple as that.

    If i was Ivor bell today, I'd implicate Gerry Adams. i'd take him with me.

    ReplyDelete
  26. NOT A BULLET NOT AN OUNCE!

    "The IRA is gone, it is finished." ---Gerry Adams

    http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/adams-attacks-timing-of-his-arrest-30242393.html


    ReplyDelete
  27. On the Guradian 'Comment is Free' pages Gerry gets the opportunity to tell us 'I'm completely innocent. but what were my accusers' motives?' The comment is free bit isn't available for readers to respond. A case of Gerry being allowed to have control over the narrative and others being gagged, in this case for 'legal reasons'.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Joe,

    I learnt a while back Gerry Adams doesn't answer 'off the cuff questions'.. He'll only reply to questions he has prior notice about.

    That's why I ask him here on TPQ.. I know he wont reply to them but my guess is he watches TPQ..

    I know Danny 'the dog' Morrison pays more than lip service to this place. He's another person who refuses to open his comments section..

    ReplyDelete
  29. Frankie

    There's a good article in the Guardian today. Adams going on about his arrest. Usual 'poor me' nonsense but what is interesting is in the middle of the article. Gerry reveals that the PSNI put it to him they believed he was turned in 1972 in Palace Barracks and has been working for Mi5 ever since. Maybe that is why they CAN charge Ivor Bell and NOT get their hands on Gerry Adams. Seems 1972 was a big year for Gerry. I think Susan Breen calls it correct too when she contends Gerry is getting this allegation 'out there' himself before the PSNI leak it.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Larry,

    I read that this morning. First seen it talked about on a Brian Rowan twitter feed..

    I am more convinced as each day goes past, that last week was not only a PR stunt but a shot across the bows to PSF to fall into line or else.

    I'll dig out the link again but during the Haass talks the NIPOA told Haass they have files that will collapse Stormount...

    Today I wouldn't be surprised if Gerry Adams was an agent of sorts. I believe Martin McGuinness still is.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Frankie

    Both of them are. How much benefit of the doubt can they be afforded? The same as you or I? They have continually surrounded themselves with similar. All those people close to the top two who were outed down the years is incredible. I don't believe for a micro-second British intelligence outed those guys in order to leave a cadre of staunch revolutionaries around Gerry and Marty. That simply makes no sense. Those edged out down the years prove otherwise. Also Scap and Donaldson were pensioned off to enjoy the good life. It beggars belief. Nope! those two tippitoed themselves gently down the line all the way and you know what, I'd love to ask the British what their end game is. Can it be just for laughs? It is all too easy for them. I do in fairness get the feeling the PSNI have no real love for Gerry. Too many dirty doings and dead mates. So, my take on the arrest is they would have charged him only the British establishment stepped, in Ian Hayne etc. But slowly and surely Gerry is being exposed. Not so sure how long it will take for the penny to drop for them that 'we know ya know'. Not quite the president of Ireland dream he anticipated either.

    On that note, I met a university friend here in the South yesterday and we chatted briefly about Adams. (my mate he joked....I never corrected him) but he is adamant the McConville thing will finish Adams down here. Not impressed at all would be putting it lightly.

    The shinners and fellow travellers will hang on to Gerry's leper rags before denying him, we have seen live on TV they simply have no one else and nowhere else to go. In the quicksand up to their necks.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Frankie,

    I expected that it would be beneath the Dear Leader to respond to any questions. I wouldn't mind at least getting the chance to congratulate the Dear Leader on his great achievements.

    I caught the weekly media review they do on BBC Radio Scotland and the pundits spoke admiringly of how He was able, through this piece in the guardian, to perform a marvellous feat of spin. They didn't mention that comment is free for Him alone on the guardian website. They marvelled at his abilities as a 'master of spin', much in the same way that they marvelled at the media management of the Great Teflon Tony.

    The Dear Leader, being the Man of the People, cannot but channel the voice of the people.

    ReplyDelete
  33. John Muldoon

    'Anthony did you do a tape and say what you were involved in while in the IRA? doubt it!
    Moneymoneymoney'

    Am wondering did you see the spotlight programme and if so why you are so quiet?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Larry,
    So, my take on the arrest is they would have charged him only the British establishment stepped,

    That's as clear to me as the nose on my face. I'm under no doubt a phone call came through to Antrim crime suite and the PSNI were told to release him. I believe the PSNI had enough to charge Adams with at least membership.

    Gerry Adams complains about his food, lodged a complaint about how things were handled..But no complaint about unlawful arrest (unless I'm missing something)..



    Joe,
    Gerry Adams talks about not being allowed to respond to accusations made about him in the Belfast project. All he has to do is simply log on to 'blogger' and challenge people here. He wont because he hasn't the balls he was born with. Same as Danny 'the dog' Morrison. he wont allow peope to reply on his blog.

    (The comments section on the Gerry Adams part was turned off for 'legal reasons'...)

    @ Gerry Adams..Michael McConville has given you the names of some of the people who took his mother away. Have you passed on the names to the PSNI? A simple yes or no would suffice..

    ReplyDelete
  35. If Mr McConville has given Gerry Adams those names and they were not given to the PSNI then the family should consider cutting out the middle man. (culprit?)

    ReplyDelete
  36. L.H. said: “Gerry reveals that the PSNI put it to him they believed he was turned in 1972 in Palace Barracks and has been working for Mi5 ever since.”

    I have often wondered about this because if he isn’t working for Mi5 then he should be charging them for services rendered because everything he and his Stalinist cabal signed up to is exactly what Margaret Thatcher had on offer for them, i.e. Normalization, Criminalization & Ulsterization.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Sinn Fein have drawn a line in the sand on this issue. Even those who do have worries about the nature of the BC tapes should be mindful their public utterances don't support Sinn Fein in trying to isolate Anthony and Ed Moloney.What does solidarity mean to you? Is it just nodding at things you already 100% agree with? Or is it understanding the context at which point potential divisions become apparent ?

    ReplyDelete
  38. L.H. said: “I'd love to ask the British what their end game is.”

    Their continued occupation and rule of N.I. for...ever!




    ReplyDelete
  39. Will they now interview Ameriquest employees that will corroborate that Deval Patrick was hired to keep the Clinton Administration from investigating them?

    ReplyDelete