The Campaign Outsider investigative unit has been hard at work trying to answer this question: Who’s behind the @BCSubpoenaNews Twitter feed and blog, both of which track developments around Boston College’s fight to quash subpoenas seeking material from the university’s IRA oral history archive. (See background here and here.)
By hard at work, of course, we mean clicking around, guessing, and reading any comments sent to us.
First stab (by the hardworking staff): BC’s Burns Library. Annhhh! I’m sorry, that’s incorrect – but thanks for playing.
Second stab (by splendid reader Ted Folkman): Ed Moloney, who directed the oral history project and has sued (separately from BC) in US District Court in Boston to quash the subpoenas from U.S. prosecutors, which seek information about the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a Belfast mother of 10. (Moloney also produces The Broken Elbow blog.)
Not so fast, says splendid reader Digital History (not even gonna try to guess who that is), who writes this:
The Broken Elbow is Ed Moloney’s blog, and Ed Moloney did post about the BC Subpoena News site. But using Ted Folkman’s logic, it could also be said that as you have posted about the site, you are the one behind it. In both cases that would be wrong. Neither you nor Ed Moloney are behind the BCSN blog, although you have both drawn attention to it via your own blogs.
The BCSN is simply a reference site for people who are interested in, or should be interested in because of its impact or ramifications, the case and its outcome. All relevant material is collected at the site so that an informed opinion, rather than off-the-cuff, inaccurate and incorrect supposition, can be made on the subject. Court documents, affidavits, exhibits, news articles and a good deal of background information, is all readily available and updated regularly to help people not familiar with the case’s nuances understand all that is at play in this complex issue. The site is structured so it is easy to navigate and discover all the detail.
Except, of course, who is behind it, as the BCSN prefers to remain anonymous. ʘ‿ʘ
Anybody else wanna weigh in?
Campaign Outsider 
More confident guess: Looking at the original content at a few locations on the website, the author appears to be of national origin from across the pond. He/she may now reside here, but uses a number of spellings and phrasings typical of somebody from UK and/or Ireland.
Less confident guess: someone with a legal background, because the site is structured more how someone with a legal background would view the case. A non-lawyer would be far less likely to organize the website under top-level categories of “respondent,” “US Government,” and “intervenor” — not just the word choice, but would choose a different organizational approach. Think of how a historian might structure it differently; then how a civilian, directly involved in the Troubles themselves, would organize it differently again. Just seems like a lawyer or legal profession person.
Based on those two pieces of information, is there a Person Of Interest in the Cast of Characters who has a legal background and was brought up in the UK and/or Ireland?
Excellent detective work, Mike.
P.S. A quick search for one of those spellings on Moloney’s website shows that he repeatedly uses the American spelling for that word, not the British. Moloney is not likely to be your man.
hi!
i am the tooth fairy. my task in life is to spread happiness and joy. i can’t help but notice that you are obsessing about a matter that is absolutely inconsequential. your lives therefore must be full of misery & sadness. if you send me your addresses i will visit your bedroom in the middle of the night and sprinkle fairy dust all over you. when you awake in the morning you will forget all about boston college and realise that there are far better ways to spend your days!
yours
the tooth fairy
Oh, pipe down and give me a quarter. I lost a filling the other week, but did I hear from you then? No. C’mon man – do your job.
Going rate is $2.
Thanks, Mike. I’ll up my old-school rate card.
Well, to respond to Digital History, here is the post from Moloney’s Broken Elbow blog that led me to conclude that he’s behind the new blog, too.
Looks pretty specific to me. Let’s ask Digital History.
Good catch, Mr Folkman – perhaps I am parsing hairs at this point but my interjection here was that it was not Ed Moloney’s personal blog nor specific to Mr Moloney alone. I built the website originally as my own reference source for easy access to quickly accumulating material and it was made public as the interest in the case has grown. I am Anthony McIntyre’s wife. As such neither the Twitter feed nor the blog belong to Moloney, as had been previously suggested on this blog.
Fair enough! You may or may not be interested in my posts on this case, which deal with it from a purely legal perspective without really asking about the political or policy implications:
Initial post on the motion to quash
Post on the government’s opposition to the motion to quash
Post on the motion to intervene
Post on the government’s opposition to the motion to intervene.
I’m not sure the conclusions will be to your liking, but I do think BC and particularly the intervenors have a very tough row to hoe.
Yes, I’ve been reading your blog’s coverage and am glad for the outside perspective. It is very helpful and quite interesting. We know it is an uphill battle, and it has been tough on us, but it is a necessary one that is worth fighting.
…which would mean that you are Carrie Twomey?
Out of curiosity, since I predicted the author/editor to have been raised on the other side of the pond and possibly to have a legal background, was I correct on either count?
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