session idea - Archives, Oral History and The Belfast Case

[BKE...@albany.edu]

I am organizing a session dealing with Archives, Oral History and The Belfast Case. Between 2001 and 2006, Irish researchers conducted nearly 50 oral histories with those involved with the violence between loyalists and unionists of Northern Ireland, otherwise known as “The Troubles.” The recordings were housed at Boston College’s Library, with the understanding that each interview would remain closed until the interviewee’s death. In March 2011, the US Justice Department issued a subpoena on behalf of the British government and the outcome could have lasting effects for oral history programs and archival collections. I hagve one speaker confirmed. Christine Anne George, Archivist & Faculty Services Librarian, Charles B. Sears Law Library, SUNY Buffalo Law School, is willing to speak and provide an update on her 2013 article “Archives Beyond the Pale: Negotiating Legal and Ethical Entanglements after the Belfast Project.” (American Archivist, Volume 76, Number 1 / Spring-Summer 2013, p. 47-67). I am looking for an archivist from Boston College who is willing to speak from their perspective. Brian Keough