By Michael Caprio
Special to the BIR

Boston College announced Wednesday that it will fight a subpoena from British authorities demanding that the university hand over protected interviews with former IRA members.

University spokesperson Jack Dunn said in a statement that the release of the tapes could threaten the safety of the living IRA participants and the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland.

British authorities are seeking the interview records of Brendan Hughes and Delours Price, both former members of the Provisional IRA. BC researchers recorded their accounts as part of an oral history project known as the Belfast Project that ran from 2001 to 2006. It was agreed, however, that each participant’s records not be released until their death. The records of Hughes, who died in 2008, were used by Ed Moloney in his book Voices from the Grave.

Price remains alive and will be “deeply traumatized” if her interviews go public, BC lawyers told reporters.