Chris Bray: A Passive Receptacle

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn sat down for an interview with RTÉ this week, and the result is fascinating. I can't embed the video, so watch it here (NOTE, added later: RTÉ has now pulled the video from their website), and note what Dunn says starting at 2:14 or so:

"From the very beginning of this project, which was conceived by Ed Moloney -- he approached Boston College with the idea to record conversations with former paramilitaries from the IRA and the UVF, and he asked if we would be interested in being a repository of these materials. Boston College is America's leading institution on Irish studies, Irish history, Irish literature. We agreed to add it to our extensive holdings as one more example of something that could be used as a resource for future historians, for journalists, etc., regarding the Troubles."

So this Moloney guy shows up on campus one day, and he's doing this project -- all his thing, totally his own effort, has nothing to do with anybody on campus -- and he asks BC if, you know, could you spare a little shelf space in the library so I have a place to park this stuff? And BC already has a bunch of Irish stuff in the archives, so they figure what the hell, we'll toss it in there "as one more example" of stuff we already had, yawn. Had nothing to do with us, you understand, we were just a "repository" that the Moloney guy chose for his own work.

Not Here To Plead For Crumbs

Tonight The Pensive Quill features a statement read out at a recent Occupy Belfast event. It was submitted by Sean Matthews, a frequent guest writer here. He also asked readers to view an excellent you tube video produced by the Creative Arts Workers Cooperative which also gives further context to the occupation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txhbe1hNzVQ

We, the occupiers, would like firstly to thank all those who have taken the time to come and join us today. The liberation of this building and this rally mark the beginning of a mass campaign for decent homes and a decent society for all. This campaign involves all those struggling against the imposition of so-called austerity by the representatives of the rich and powerful in Stormont, Westminster and Dublin. We are not here today to plead for crumbs from the tables of the rich. We are here today to demand and to create a world where the interest of the many comes before the interests of the few - the 1%.

Chris Bray: Scarce Solutions

"The game is rigged. But you cannot lose if you do not play."

-- Marie Daniels

Judges are careful people, and it's always an interesting moment when they say things they don't need to say. At a district court hearing on Tuesday, Judge William Young ruled that researchers Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre do not have legal standing to sue Attorney General Eric Holder and a federal prosecutor in Boston who has sought to enforce subpoenas for confidential archival materials on paramilitary organizations that were active in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Tried And Acquitted

The Republican activist Colin Duffy was acquitted on Friday of last week of involvement in the attack at Massereene Co Antrim which resulted in two members of the British Army losing their lives.  His co-accused Brian Shivers was convicted of killing both soldiers and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

I was surprised by the verdict. I thought the trial would have been managed in such a way as to meet with the British police’s imperative of convicting Duffy. If one of the two was likely to be acquitted I felt it would be Shivers.

This has nothing to do with the evidence against either man. I never considered this trial as something that was going to be guided by the strict laws of evidence but one that would be determined by political calculations and British security needs. The nature of the DNA evidence seemed particularly tenuous and it took a considerable leap of faith, coupled with an abandonment of reason, by the trial judge to render the witness testimony of the Crown’s chief DNA ‘expert’ as admissible evidence.

Chris Bray: Nom Nom Nom

Tonight The Pensive Quill links to Chris Bray as he describes the actions of the Assistant U.S. Attorney in pressing for even more of the oral history archive at Boston College.

In a remarkable Saturday filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil burps, pats his full belly, and orders a few more courses. The Department of Justice is not satisfied with a court ruling that hands them fully a third of the nominally confidential IRA interviews archived at Boston College.

A Response to Ted Folkman

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries a response from Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre to an article written by Ted Folkman in his blog Letters Blogatary.

Ted Folkman, a Boston based lawyer, is living proof that because one follows a case it does not follow that they come remotely close to grasping what lies at the heart of it.

He writes that he has been struck by a change in emphasis among those ‘publishing articles critical of subpoenas.’ In essence he means Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre given his accompanying reference to ‘their defeat in the District Court.’

There has not been a shift in emphasis but rather an expansion of the discussion to encompass the conditions that helped produce the crisis that has beset the Belfast Project. The fight to prevent the enforcement of the subpoenas, although abandoned by Boston College, is very much a work in progress. Are we in court contesting the enforceability merely for the optics?

Statement After Court Hearing

This afternoon’s judgement in Boston comes as no surprise.  However we will appeal Judge Young’s decision, along with the rest of our case, which will be heard in the US Court of Appeals in March when we expect a much more positive outcome.

We would like to welcome Judge Young’s remark about the Belfast project: “I’ve read thousands of pages of the transcripts. This was a bona fide academic exercise of considerable intellectual merit.”

Renewed Appeal for Gerard Anthony Daly

Tonight the Pensive Quill featured Guest Writer Belinda Daly who renews her appeal for her missing brother Gerry Daly.

Missing Person Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

The family and friends of Gerard Daly (43), known to his friends as “Gerry”, are renewing their appeal for information regarding his disappearance. Gerry, a resident of Bailieborough, Co. Cavan and originally from Tallaght, Co. Dublin has been missing from his home in Bailieborough since Sunday, 26th June, 2011 under undeniably suspicious circumstances.

Boston College Statement

Statement to supporters from Boston College researchers Ed Moloney & Anthony McIntyre.

Contrary to widespread media reports, this Tuesday’s court hearing in Boston will not decide the outcome of our fight to prevent AG Eric Holder from handing over IRA interviews to the PSNI in Belfast.

The important hearing in this case will instead take place some time in March before the US Court of Appeals when our lawyers will argue that Eric Holder failed to take into account the damage these subpoenas will cause to the Irish peace process before issuing them against Boston College.

Iron Lady

Tonight the Pensive Quill features guestr writer self proclaimed Revolutionary Unionist Dr John Coulter who casts a critical eye over the supposed blockbuster on former British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher.

Hollywood screen legend Meryl Streep will have to made a second blockbuster flick about British PM Maggie Thatcher entitled The Real Iron Lady. While the current film featured numerous scenes with Maggie chatting to her hubby Denis's dead spirit, it is the Irish ghosts which are sadly lacking in this potentially Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Chris Bray: Obvious and Dangerous Lies from Boston College

Tonight The Pensive Quill links to an article by Chris Bray on his excellent blog in which he damns the Boston College figures who wrote a column in yesterday's Irish Times. Bray cuts to the chase and slices through their self exculpating narrative with a swingeing piece of analysis which pulls no punches about the mendacity employed by Boston College as it continues to evade its responsibilities.

Poachers Turn Game Keepers - Policing is Political

Tonight The Pensive Quill features an article by guest writer Sean Matthews on Sinn Fein and policing which looks at the issue from an anarchist perspective.

The transition from opposition to defenders and enforcers of the status-quo by the Provisional Republican Movement has not been without its hiccups along the way which is what you would expect with a path littered with hypocrisy and broken promises. Writing in the Belfast Telegraph Sinn Fein’s National Chairperson Declan Kearney referred to the ’dark side’ of policing and warned his party’s support for the police is ‘not unconditional,’ which is merely a mantra to cover up growing discontent and disillusionment within republican heartlands as they are now the game-keepers lock, stock and barrel.

Chris Bray: Boston College and Jack Dunn

Last Chris Bray wrote a piece about the hapless attempts by Boston College PR man Jack Dunn's unenviable task of trying to get the the college off the hook. As always with Chris his observations are well worth a read. Universities taking responsibility for their actions is not the done thing it seems.

British State Investigating Half The Past

A few days back the The Irish Times carried a powerful letter  written by a Catholic priest who is  the brother of a young man shot dead by loyalist gunmen in North Belfast in 1972. In his letter Joseph McCullough shows how all queries have 'drawn a complete blank from the RUC/PSNI.' He described their response as abysmal.

A Reply to Niall O’Dowd

Tonight The Pensive Quill features a response from Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre to Niall O'Dowd. Ed Moloney writes a preamble to that response.

Preamble

Yesterday, Niall O'Dowd published an article on his website accusing Anthony McIntyre and myself of tricking Republican interviewees into participating in the Boston College oral history project with false promises of confidentiality. The article below is our response to this false claim.

Readers should bear in mind two things: firstly, the Provisional leadership dislikes the oral history project because a) one of the participants, Richard O'Rawe went on to publish an inside account  of the 1981 hunger strike which strongly challenged that leadership's version of the protest and raised grave questions about its behavior towards the fasting prisoners, and b) another of the interviewees was Brendan Hughes who was motivated by his anger at Gerry Adams' denial of his own IRA past to tell a no-holds barred account of his and Adams' life in the IRA. In other words the oral history project challenged the official narrative and history - and thereby their sole control - of two key aspects of the Provisional leadership's story: how it dealt with the hunger strike and Gerry Adams' own life story.

Had Richard O'Rawe not decided, against our advice, to tell his story in book form, his interview would have remained sealed until his death and his controversial version of the 1981 hunger strike would have remained hidden from view for many years. But publishing his own story was Richard's right and, as he felt it, his duty. Likewise Brendan Hughes was insistent that his interview be published after his death rather than just made available to scholars. The rest of the archive includes a wide spectrum of republican viewpoints and organisations, from differing generations and geographical locations. Happenstance has meant that the first two projects to result from the archive were these. The idea that the archive was an anti-Adams' project, as claimed by O'Dowd and the Provisional leadership, is therefore a myth. In this context it is worth reflecting on this question: if Gerry Adams had been less inventive about his past would Brendan Hughes have ever contemplated talking as openly as he did?

GARC

Today The Pensive Quill features a piece from Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective, otherwise known as GARC. GARC describes itself  as a non-political residents' group that is there to serve and give a voice to all the people of Ardoyne, Mountainview and the Dales in opposing unwanted, bigoted sectarian parades through our community by the Loyal Orders. GARC states that is committed to peaceful, radical action in order to bring an end to triumphalist parades that are open manisfestations of sectarianism and that result in massive disruption to the lives of people in the  community it serves, the militarisation and criminalisation of that community.


On July 12th 2010, GARC staged a dignified sitdown protest against the evening parade by the Orange Order through Greater Ardoyne, exercising our right to protest under the European Convention of Human Rights. The sectarian march was permitted by the discredited Parades Commission, despite the fact that the North and West Belfast Parades Forum (who represent the Loyal Orders) had refused to even discuss their position with the Commission for a significant period of time. This was despite the stated position that the Commission will look favourably on those who 'engage in dialogue.' In comparison, GARC had engaged with the Parades Commission's then Secretary, Ronnie Pedlow and other Commissioners' in Holy Cross Monastery prior to the march. We gave the Commision our and our community's position, which we represented. 'That there NO acceptable Loyal Order parade through the Greater Ardoyne community'. A fact reinforced by an independent survey, where 90% of respondents stated that this was the case.

Chris Bray: US Courts Deferring To The Government

Chris Bray with yet another good piece on the Boston College crisis. In this piece Bray outlines how courts tend to give way to governments on matters of foreign policy

This & That: Take 5

Kick About

Great footage here of the game between Amsterdam and AZ Alkaar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgvJAq2Lyag&feature=related.

An Ajax thug already banned for his antics at soccer games ran on to have a kick at the goalkeeper. The keeper was too quick and knocked the bollix out of the clown who is now banned for life from attending games. A Dutch court also sentenced the moron, identified only as Wesley van W under Dutch privacy laws, to six months. Not hard to guess what W stands for.

The goalie got a red card which was later rescinded. In my view he should have been awarded European sportsman of the year – for kickboxing.

Chris Bray: Boston College And State Failure

Chris Bray has a very strong piece in today's Irish Times detailing what he sees as serious systemic failures underlying the Boston College tapes crisis.

Bray has proven to be one of the sharpest observers of the issue and continues in the same vein with his copy today.

Chris Bray: Boston College And Reckless Negligence.

The historian and blogger Chris Bray has crafted a discerning piece that gets beneath Boston College dissembling. Bray has followed the case since the early days of the subpoena being issued by the British police and has offered some of the most piercing commentary on the affair.

Bray’s piece shows how Boston College ignored proposals to protect the oral history archive in the wake of the first subpoena. After that subpoena Boston College was totally aware that its ironclad guarantees amounted to little. Yet it persisted in creating the circumstances whereby an already endangered archive was made even more vulnerable to an assault by British police. 

Fighting For Release

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries a report from guest writer Martin Galvin on developments in the case of republican political prisoner Gerry McGeough 

Gerry's hearing today lasted more than 4 hours  as his solicitors  argued for his entitlement to release under the Good Friday arrangement. The first challenge was whether the Court had any authority to review the crown's power to grant or withhold pardons. His solicitors contended that when pardons are granted or withheld on arbitrary grounds that are clearly discriminatory such as withdrawing a pardon from Gerry McGeough because of his political opinions and candidacy in an election,that such matters are indeed re viewable and subject to court rulings to correct abuses of discretion.

Statement From Gerry McGeough

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries a statement from republican prisoner Gerry McGeough.

There is increasing evidence that the Sinn Fein leadership is crushing down on the membership of the party, especially on those who have been trying to highlight my case.

This serves to underscore the wide spread informed belief that as part of a secret deal between the Sinn Fein leadership, the Unionists and the British government, that I was to be politically sacrificed.

Continuity RUC - Ten Years On

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Sean Matthews, sharing his view on the PSNI.

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the Continuity RUC/PSNI with former Chief Constable Hugh Orde once referring to the force as the ‘most democratic, accountable police service in the world.’ However, despite the cosmetic changes and window dressing the reality on the ground in working class communities is in stark contrast to the propaganda media blitz waged by the status-quo.

Since 2001, we have witnessed the devolving of policing and justice powers to the Stormont executive under David Ford, Alliance MLA, the ending of the controversial 50/50 recruitment policy with Catholics now making up for around a third of the total police force; the establishment of a new MI5 headquarters at Hollywood which is effectively the central intelligence agency for the North. In recent months we have witnessed the independence of the Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson surrounding the mishandling of sensitive and confidential information into historical enquiries such as collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces. As a result he will now resign ahead of schedule.