![]() |
Edmund "Ed" Moloney (born 1948/49) is an Irish journalist and author best known for his coverage of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the activities of the Provisional IRA, in particular.
He worked for the Hibernia magazine and Magill before going on to serve as Northern Ireland editor for The Irish Times and subsequently for the Sunday Tribune . He is currently living and working in New York City. His first book, Paisley, was a biography of Unionist leader Ian Paisley, co-authored by Andy Pollak, and published in 1986.
In 2002, he published a best selling history of the Provisional IRA, A Secret History of the IRA . [1] A second edition of the book was published in July 2007. This was followed, in 2008, by a new edition of Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?, of which Moloney is the single author. [2]
In 1999, he was voted Irish Journalist of the Year. [3]
Moloney directed Boston College's Belfast Project, which collected interviews with republican and loyalist militants. [4] In March 2010, the book Voices from the Grave was published, which featured interviews with Brendan Hughes and David Ervine, compiled by researchers from the project. He based the book on the interviews given by Hughes and Ervine. Excerpts from the book published by The Sunday Times relate to Hughes discussing his role and that of Gerry Adams in the PIRA.
Events recorded in the book include both men's actions in regard to the disappearance of Jean McConville and others, Bloody Friday, and the sourcing of IRA weapons, among other details of Hughes' IRA career. [5] In October 2010, Irish broadcaster RTÉ aired an 83-minute television documentary co-produced by Moloney based on Voices from the Grave. In February 2011, Voices From the Grave won the best television documentary prize at the annual Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs).
On 27 June 1999, Moloney published a story based on his 1990 interviews he had with UDA quartermaster Billy Stobie. Stobie claimed that, in a separate incident, the Special Branch had framed him by planting guns at his home. He related his version of the circumstances of Pat Finucane's death to be published as assurance should anything untoward happen to him. The account was published when, as part of the Stevens Enquiry Stobie was arrested and charged with Finucane's murder. [6]
Moloney refused to comply with a court order that he should give to the police notes he had made during the interviews. [7] He faced jail or heavy fines but, in October 1999, Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell ruled at the High Court in Belfast that the judge had been mistaken in ordering Moloney to turn over his notes to the police.[ citation needed ]
Supporting Glenn Greenwald, Ed Moloney wrote in 2013:
"Most ominously in their efforts to silence dissent from within government, Obama/Holder are seeking to criminalize the media, insinuating in some prosecutions that by facilitating a whistleblower, journalists can be accomplices in crime. So far the White House has shied from actually following through with charges but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that they may try to over the Snowden case, hence the fierce hostility to the radical journalist Glenn Greenwald in establishment politican[ sic ] and media circles." [8]
In May 2020, Village magazine revealed attempts to assassinate Ed Moloney and Vincent Browne had been planned in 1982. [9]
In the February 1982 Irish general election Sinn Féin the Workers' Party had won three seats and found themselves in a position of power. [9] The three TDs voted for Charles Haughey of Fianna Fáil as opposed to Garret FitzGerald of Fine Gael. [9] After the election Ed Moloney wrote two articles on Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party for the Irish Times. [9] The first dealt with the party's political journey and appeared in print. [9] The second, which dealt with the continuing existence of the Official IRA and its criminal activities, did not. [9] An unknown member of the Irish Times passed Moloney's article to the Official IRA. [9] Ed Moloney said that this part "never appeared and I was never officially informed nor given any explanation by the Irish Times. I cannot even say whether my copy was even shown above the level of sub-editor". [9]
Ed Moloney then passed on his research to Magill , edited then by Vincent Browne. [9] A two-part series was published in the March and April 1982 issues and they sold out. [9] It was embarrassing for Sinn Féin – The Workers' Party. [9]
The Official IRA set Moloney up to be murdered, though it isn't clear if this was done before or after the publication of the Magill articles. [9] Two members of SFWP told the Ulster Defence Association that Moloney was in the Irish National Liberation Army. [9]
Ed Moloney ended up in the UDA HQ in Gawn Street, facing John McMichael, Davy Payne and a third member of the UDA Inner Council that Moloney did not name, but who was still alive in May 2020. [9] Payne in particular had a history of involvement with sectarian torture and murder. [9] Cathal Goulding and the Official IRA must have known that if the UDA had fallen for their allegations, the latter would have abducted and tortured Ed Moloney before murdering him, with Davy Payne as most likely choice for interrogator. [9] Moloney was told that the UDA Inner Council didn't believe the allegations. [9]
Although Moloney did not record the date of his confrontation with the UDA, he said he handed over material to Magill "some time after" the encounter. [9] The assassination attempt was thus meant to kill him and suppress information that had not been published by the Irish Times. [9]
Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he followed the policy of abstentionism as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency.
The Stevens Inquiries were three official British government inquiries led by Sir John Stevens concerning collusion in Northern Ireland between loyalist paramilitaries and the state security forces. While Stevens declared in 1990 that collusion was "neither wide-spread nor institutionalised", by April 2003 he acknowledged that he had uncovered collusion at a level "way beyond" his 1990 view. Much of Stevens' evidence was obtained from advanced fingerprint techniques to link people to documents. By 2005 the team had identified 2,000 people from their prints with a further 1,015 sets of prints outstanding.
David Ervine was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007 and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 1998 to 2007. During his youth Ervine was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and was imprisoned for possessing bomb-making equipment. Whilst in jail he became convinced of the benefits of a more political approach for loyalism and became involved with the PUP. As a leading PUP figure, Ervine helped to deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994.
Jean McConville was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
Patrick Finucane was an Irish lawyer who specialised in criminal defence work. Finucane came to prominence due to his successful challenge of the British government in several important human rights cases during the 1980s. He was killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), acting in collusion with British security services. In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Pat Finucane's family and apologised for the collusion.
The Milltown Cemetery attack took place on 16 March 1988 at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the large funeral of three Provisional IRA members killed in Gibraltar, an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member, Michael Stone, attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistols. He had learned there would be no police or armed IRA members at the cemetery. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd chased him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of the crowd caught Stone and beat him, but he was rescued by the police and arrested. Three people were killed and more than 60 wounded.
Edgar Samuel David Graham, MPA, BL was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician and academic from Northern Ireland. He was regarded as a rising star of both legal studies and Unionism and a possible future leader of the UUP. Graham was shot dead on 7 December 1983 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) close to the main library at Queen's University Belfast, where he lectured in law.
Raymond "Ray" Smallwoods was a Northern Ireland politician and sometime leader of the Ulster Democratic Party. A leading member of John McMichael's South Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Smallwoods later served as a leading adviser to the UDA's Inner Council. He was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) outside his Lisburn home.
Augustus Andrew Spence was a leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and a leading loyalist politician in Northern Ireland. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade.
Ulster Resistance (UR), or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM), is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland in November 1986 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Brendan Hughes, also known as "The Dark", and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader of the 1980 Irish hunger strike.
Ivor Malachy Bell is an Irish republican, and a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who later became Chief of Staff on the Army Council.
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Brian Nelson was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary member during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was an intelligence chief of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and also a clandestine agent for the British Army's Force Research Unit during the conflict.
William "Billy" Stobie was an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) quartermaster and RUC Special Branch informer who was involved in the shootings of student Adam Lambert in 1987 and solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.
Tommy "Tucker" Lyttle, was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist during the period of religious-political conflict in Northern Ireland known as "the Troubles". A member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) – the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland – he first held the rank of lieutenant colonel and later was made a brigadier. He served as the UDA's spokesman as well as the leader of the organisation's West Belfast Brigade from 1975 until his arrest and imprisonment in 1990. According to journalists Henry McDonald and Brian Rowan, and the Pat Finucane Centre, he became a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch informer.
William Mitchell was a Northern Ireland loyalist, community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder. He later abandoned his UVF membership and took up cross-community work.
Kenneth Gibson was a Northern Irish politician who was the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party (VPP), which he had helped to form in 1974. He also served as a spokesman and Chief of Staff of the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Anthony McIntyre is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, writer and historian.
The Belfast Project was an oral history project on the Troubles based at Boston College in Massachusetts, U.S. The project began in 2000 and the last interviews were concluded in 2006. The interviews were intended to be released after the participants' deaths and serve as a resource for future historians.