Introduction
Anthony McIntyre is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer, writer and historian. He was imprisoned for murder for 18 years in Long Kesh, spending four of those years on the no-wash protest. After his release from prison in 1996 he completed a PhD in political science at Queens University Belfast and subsequently worked as a journalist and researcher. A collection of his journalism was published as a book in 2008, Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism.
Research and the Belfast Project
McIntyre was involved with the Boston College oral history project on the Troubles entitled the Belfast Project, conducting interviews with former Provisional IRA members who (like himself) had become disillusioned with the direction the republican movement had taken, such as Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, and former Ulster loyalist paramilitaries such as David Ervine. The interviews were the basis for the book Voices From The Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland by Ed Moloney.
In 2011, McIntyre became embroiled in controversy when transcripts of the interviews, held by Boston College, were subpoenaed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in relation to an investigation of the 1972 abduction and killing of Jean McConville. In March 2014, the PSNI announced that it was seeking to question McIntyre over newly released Belfast Project recordings, specifically in reference to the alleged role of Gerry Adams in the kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville.
Political views
McIntyre is a prominent critic of modern-day Sinn Féin and its leadership.