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BC’s Belfast Project: Archives are in danger, but technology can help -
Opinion - The Boston Globe

More than a decade ago, researchers at Boston College interviewed people
from both sides of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, promising each
contributor to the Belfast Project that his or her interview recording
wouldn’t be released until the contributor died. In the meantime, the tapes
would be deposited at the college’s rare books library under lock and key.
On the basis of those promises, some people spoke for the first time about
painful actions that remain murky in the public eye, including unsolved
murders that they’d helped commit or cover up.

When the British government learned of the Belfast Project about 10 years
later, it invoked a mutual legal assistance treaty
<http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/07/06/appeals-court-upholds-subpoenas-ruling-belfast-oral-history-project-case/LaGEiFxneQgp2OPC5KJkDP/story.html>
to demand immediate access to some of the tapes. After months of legal
wrangling, some of the tapes were turned over, resulting in the arrest in
April of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in connection with one of the
killings discussed in the interviews. Adams was released, but Northern
Ireland officials are now seeking the entire set of interviews
<http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/23/northern-ireland-authorities-seek-all-interviews-from-boston-college-belfast-project/ACpqBGEQu9YRXPRASnhSyI/story.html>
— perhaps to balance an inquiry into the Irish Republican Army with
investigation of possible crimes by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force
as well.




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Source:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/06/07/belfast-project-archives-are-danger-but-technology-can-help/r3NfgdOobGLbte5PnqkvGN/story.html
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Peter Kurilecz CRM CA IGP
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