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Boston College tapes: Police seek Anthony McIntyre interviews

Anthony McIntyre was the lead researcher for the Boston College project
Anthony McIntyre was the lead researcher for the Boston College project Anthony McIntyre was the lead researcher for the Boston College project

THE PSNI and Public Prosecution Service have launched a legal bid to gain access to all interviews and notes by a former IRA man who was one of the main researchers for a Troubles' history project at Boston College.

Anthony McIntyre conducted interviews with former IRA members on the understanding that the contents would not be made public until after their deaths.

Boston College has been issued with a subpoena instructing it to hand over the material on May 6.

Mr McIntyre has engaged a lawyer to "resist the efforts to raid his personal memoirs".

Dozens of loyalists and republicans gave testimonies to Boston College staff compiling an oral history of the Northern Ireland conflict.

Interviews were given in the belief that tapes would not be made public until after their deaths.

But detectives want to access the recordings as part of investigations into murder and other paramilitary activities.

Last June police were given access to interviews given by former loyalist prisoner Winston Rea.

In 2013 detectives investigating the murder of Jean McConville in 1972 secured the transcripts of an account by former IRA woman Dolours Price.

The material was handed over following court battles on both sides of the Atlantic.