Boston researcher, whose work has been linked to Gerry Adams arrest, comments on case

(1 May 2014) A Boston College researcher, whose work interviewing former Irish Republican Army (IRA) operatives has been linked to the arrest of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, said on Thursday that Adams' detention could deal a deadly blow to those seeking answers to what really happened during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Adams was arrested in connection with the killing of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 in his Catholic west Belfast power base in 1972. The IRA branded the 37-year-old woman a British spy. Police investigating the long-unsolved killing have been making arrests based on tapes of interviews with IRA veterans that they obtained, after a two-year US legal fight, from Boston College. The interviews became the subject of a 2010 book, "Voices From the Grave," by project coordinator and author Ed Moloney. Moloney believes if Adams is charged in the McConville case, it will change the face of the peace process. "If Gerry Adams ends up being charged with the murder of Jean McConville, the lesson of that to Irish Republicans, to activists and militants in the IRA is that 'jaw-jaw' is a waste of time. That when you talk to the British and make a deal with them, they're going to turn around and betray you and put your leader in court, and try to put him in jail," said Moloney. The Belfast Project involved the collection of audio interviews with 26 IRA veterans detailing their own, and colleagues' careers. They spoke on condition their words be kept secret until their deaths. Detectives sought access to all of the tapes after one of the interviewees, Adams' one-time IRA confidante Brendan Hughes, died in 2008. Hughes said he led the IRA team that "arrested" McConville, but her fate was sealed following a policy argument between Adams and the man who succeeded him as the IRA's Belfast commander, Ivor Bell. He said Bell wanted McConville's body to be put on public display to intimidate others who might consider helping the British, but Adams wanted her killing kept a mystery, and she was buried in an unmarked grave. If Adams is charged in connection the murder of McConville, who disappeared without a trace until her bullet-shattered skull was found near a Republic of Ireland beach in 2003, it would be a profound surprise and deal a damaging shock to Northern Ireland's precariously balanced peace. "The attempts by people in Ireland to find out what happened during The Troubles and why it happened and who was involved and what went wrong and how you prevent it from happening again, trying to find the truth of what took place, has been dealt a deadly blow as a result of this. Because no one will now come forward to tell their stories," said Moloney. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/5b895b1b9d55cc512580425de8a23596