AUTHORITIES IN NORTHERN Ireland investigating the murder of Jean McConville have requested more access to confidential history archives kept in the US.

According to a report on Irish-American website Irish Central, police in Northern Ireland have asked for files from Boston College’s oral history archives of The Troubles.

New court filings show that US federal authorities have stepped in on their behalf and subpoenaed “any and all interviews containing information about the abduction and death of Mrs. Jean McConville”.

Irish Central also says that the court filings appear to ask for any information focussed on Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.

The Boston Globe reports that the university is resisting the feds efforts as the historians gave a guarantee of confidentiality to every interviewee.

Previously authorities had only asked for the testimonies of Republicans Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price. Now, the legal battle has extended to include anything in the archive relating to Jean McConville, who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972.

In 2001, Dolours Price claimed that Gerry Adams was her “officer commanding” in the IRA. She served seven years of a 20-year sentence for her part in a car bombing at the Old Bailey in London in 1973. Investigators believe her testimony could shed some light on the 40-year-old murder.