Dive Brief:

• The Police Service of Northern Ireland announced Thursday that it is suing Boston College for all of the transcripts and recordings gathered for the school’s oral history project, which included militants on both sides of the nation's infamous sectarian conflict.
• NBC News is also suing Boston College to see the transcripts and tapes previously turned over to Northern Ireland police, who, through the U.S. Department of Justice, had subpoenaed 11 interviews with former Irish Republican Army members in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville.
• Boston College had reported earlier this month that it would turn over all interview materials to the subjects, if they wished. It isn’t clear if any of the interviewees had taken the college up on the offer.

Dive Insight:

Did anyone at Boston College consider what a Pandora’s Box it could be opening with this project, despite their pledges to the subjects to keep the interviews confidential? Besides the police and NBC, the college is also potentially facing lawsuits from the interview subjects. When some of the subpoenaed interviews were finally turned over, Gerry Adams, leader of the former political arm of the I.R.A., was arrested briefly and questioned about the McConville case.