Gerry Adams had “no involvement in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA”, his solicitors have said, as the US subscription service Disney+ prepares to launch a major new series on the murder of Jean McConville and other members of the “Disappeared”.
The nine-part series, called Say Nothing, will be available on the Disney+ streaming service from Thursday.
It tells the stories of Ms McConville, a Belfast widow and mother of 10, and IRA members Brendan Hughes and Marian and Dolours Price, and ranges from the time of McConville’s 1972 disappearance to the later troubled lives of the Price sisters and Hughes.
The series also covers the disappearance of IRA victims Kevin McKee (17), Seamus Wright (25), and Joe Lynskey (40), also abducted in Belfast in 1972 and buried in secret locations. The body of Mr Lynskey has not yet been found.
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Both Hughes and Dolours Price gave interviews before they died linking Mr Adams to an IRA unit associated with the killings, as did former Belfast IRA veteran Ivor Bell, in an interview with the Boston College oral history project.
At the end of each episode, the Disney+ series carries a disclaimer saying “Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence”.
Asked to comment, former Sinn Féin president Mr Adams, through his solicitors, said he has consistently asserted his innocence in respect of the death of Ms McConville.
“Mr Adams had no involvement in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA,” the firm said in a letter to The Irish Times.
Their client had not seen the drama, “but according to media reports it is based primarily on interviews in the discredited Boston College Tapes from several anti-peace process republicans”.
The Boston College oral history project involved interviews with former paramilitaries. Interviews given by Hughes and Bell both linked Mr Adams to an IRA unit allegedly involved in the disappearances, while Dolours Price also linked Mr Adams to the unit in a filmed interview she gave before she died.
[ Jean McConville’s murder, the Boston tapes, Gerry Adams and the Ivor Bell trialOpens in new window ]
“It is a matter of public record that Gerry Adams has worked closely with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains to identify the location of those buried by the IRA,” Mr Adams’s solicitors said.
“The commission has located the remains of 13 bodies of those buried by the IRA. There are still three missing. The work continues.”
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