Ed Moloney's Blog

Dear Friends & Followers,

Ed’s family will be holding a memorial to celebrate Ed’s life and work; the event will be the afternoon of Sunday, November 16th in NYC. All friends and colleagues of Ed’s are welcome to attend and to say a few words – or just enjoy a drink in his memory. Please go to http://www.eventcreate.com/e/ed-moloney, if you would like to join us. RSVP prior to November 7th.

Warmest,

Joan & Ciarán

Edmund “Ed” Moloney passed away on October 17, 2025 at the age of 77 in New York City after a brief illness. Moloney was an award-winning Irish journalist, author and film-maker best known for his coverage of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the activities of the Provisional IRA. He was a survivor of Polio as a child – an experience that shaped his personality and world view. He remained an advocate for disability rights and of the National Health Service to which he owed his life.   

Moloney was born and educated in England, as well as Germany, Gibraltar and Malaysia. He moved to Belfast to attend Queens University, where he was introduced to Irish politics and republicanism. During those early years in Belfast, he briefly joined the Official IRA, which focused on political rather than military activities. Later in his life, Ed survived several assassination attempts by that same group. 

Following university, he spent two years in Libya, teaching English as a foreign language, before returning to Belfast. Following his return from Libya, he quickly made his name with his writing which illustrated an astute understanding of the complexity of the Irish political scene.  He remained in Belfast for most of his life until moving to New York in 2000 to help care for his mother-in-law in Riverdale, the Bronx. 

His daily news articles, weekly columns, books, and films focused on Irish politics, featured in depth analysis of politicians and the politics of Northern Ireland. Moloney made the 30 -year war against British rule in Northern Ireland – known as ‘The Troubles’ – his specialty. Not only did Moloney’s journalism open him to attack from both sides and a close-up view of the worst horrors of the Troubles, it also brought him close to the victims and their families. 

Ed worked for the Hibernia magazine and Magill before going on to write for The Irish Times, then working as Northern Editor,1980 to 1985, and subsequently serving as Northern Editor for the Sunday Tribune. In 1999, he was voted Irish Journalist of the Year. Moloney also wrote articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Economist, The Independent, The Guardian and The New Statesman. 
 
In 1999, Moloney successfully overcame the threat of fines and a prison sentence when the authorities sought access to his interview notes relating to the murder of lawyer Pat Finucane. Backed by an Irish and international campaign of support, he successfully argued that handing over his notes, besides destroying his own reputation as a journalist, would do irreparable harm to all of journalism in Northern Ireland. 

Moloney was also a respected author. His first book, Paisley, is an unauthorized biography of Unionist leader Ian Paisley, co-authored by Andy Pollak and published in 1986 (Poolbeg Press). This was followed, in 2008, by a new edition of Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?, of which Moloney is the single author. 

In 2002, he published a best-selling history of the Provisional IRA,  A Secret History of the IRA (W.W. Norton). A second edition of the book was published in July 2007. The  Guardian book review in 2002 stated, “Moloney’s book is undoubtedly the best history of Ireland’s…  most enduring paramilitary movement ever to be written. It is a brave and mercilessly honest project that will stand the test of time.” 
 
Moloney directed Boston College’s Belfast Project, which collected oral interviews with republican and loyalist militants who had been active during the Troubles. The interviews were to be released only after the interviewees died. The book Voices from the Grave, published in 2010, (Faber & Faber) featured some of these interviews notably with republican Brendan Hughes and unionist David Ervine. Excerpts from the book published by The Sunday Times featured Hughes discussing his and Gerry Adams’ roles in the Provisional IRA. A documentary titled Voices From the Grave, Two Men’s War in Ireland aired on Irish broadcaster RTÉ in 2010. In February 2011, the film won the best television documentary prize at the annual Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs) in 2011. 
In 2011, the PSNI, with support from the US Department of Justice, sought confiscation of the project’s interviews. Following a many years long legal and political battle, the project was ultimately closed and the interviews returned to the participants. 

In 2018, Moloney co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary I, Dolours, which told the story of IRA volounteer and hunger striker Dolours Price.  

Ed met and married his wife of nearly 50 years, Joan McKiernan, in Belfast. Their son, Ciarán was born and raised there and now lives in Montreal with his wife, Stephanie. Moloney was an enthusiastic pet lover. He and his first rescue dog, Brochen played frisbee for hours in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens to the awe of onlookers. Brochen was followed by four more rescue dogs, most recently Kobe, who was adopted in New York. 

The family asks that donations be made in Moloney’s honor to the Polio Global Eradication Initiative (polioeradication.org) based in Geneva, Switzerland. A memorial service will be held in NYC later this year; details will be made available on Moloney’s blog thebrokenelbow.com. 

I am not going to delve into the massive detail of Chris Moore’ supremely important book KINCORA – BRITAIN’S SHAME, except to say that it is not possible to read the book’s many revelations without concluding, as I have, that it is one of the most significant, if not the most significant pieces of journalistic research produced by the Troubles. Thanks to Chris we now know that the Kincora Boys Home was an MI5 operation almost from the get go, that the boys were raped with MI5’s approval, that the staff were de facto MI5 employees and the boys were used and discarded like human trash. We also know that MI5 facilitated a well known member of the British Royal Family, allowing him access to Kincora to indulge his sexual perversions in the knowledge that he would never face a judge or jury. The fact that the late Chief Superintendent George Caskey co-operated with Chris Moore, giving him access to the results of his own PSNI investigation before his death, adds enormously to the credibility of this book. This matter cannot be allowed to rest. MI5 is in the dock, as are the many British and Irish politicians and officials who facilitated their crimes.

Nothing of a political nature, especially involving Sinn Fein or the IRA, happens in West Belfast without Gerry Adams knowing, usually but not always beforehand;

Nothiing of a violent nature, especially involving the IRA or related/rival groups, happens in West Belfast without Gerry Adams knowing, especially but not always afterwards;

it is why he has stayed at the top of the pile….

A couple more

Some fairly obvious points need to be made about the killing of Denis Donaldson.

The first is that nothing happens in West Belfast without the knowledge and often the approval of the Provos. The idea that a senior and well known figure like Denis Donaldson could be killed by a small dissident republican group without the foreknowledge of the Provisional IRA is just plainly ludicrous.

In fact it is not stretching reality to suspect that this was an arrangement that suited both the killers and the Provos, the former because in their world they looked smart while the latter got rid of an embarrassing and possibly damaging leak. The real losers were Donaldson’s handlers, either the PSNI Special Branch or the British Army.

And make no mistake about this. Whoever pulled the trigger on Donaldson the real killers, the people who gave the go-ahead were the Provos

One of the late Ted Howell’s many contributions to the maturing of Sinn Fein’s politics was that he introduced the Republican leadership to the delights of French wine, a product he had discovered when he was the IRA’s European representative in the 70’s.

His collection of wines was extensive; Ted himself was known to be partial and he was good company to boot.

His record as a gunrunner was, however, less than stellar and one source went as far as calling his contribution to the IRA’s arsenal ‘pathetic’. Clearly, Howell’s talents lay elsewhere, primarily, as it turns out, as Adams ‘Thank Tank’ supremo, in which capacity he transformed SF’s US arm from an IRA support group to a sophisticated political machine, and helped steer SF to electoral politics.

Luigi Mangione killed a Chief Executive Officer in New York – Why do so many Americans blame the private health industry?

A lawyer’s view:

“On a side note, Radden-Keefe is going to feel the firm side of the law when served with discovery notices and court orders to produce discovery concerning the Marian Price litigation. Given the seriousness of all that, he will either have to make a very robust apology and damages or face a written judgement which will destroy his credibility and sink anything flowing from that book and Disney series. That’s my reading of it but I could be wrong. The cross examination will prove enlightening!”

Not content with stealing my work you now indulge in felon setting; you really are a despicable low life…..

i have been quite unwell recently (a stubborn case of pneumonia) but for those interested i would be happy, when I am physically and mentally able, to answer any questions you may wish to ask about the Keefe diatribe (assuming you know what I am talking about!). i do not rule anything out except that which culminates in felon setting. (Message to my American friends: the only thing I can say right now that you should to try to avoid catching pneumonia?) So, send me your questions and as soon as I can, health permitting, I will endeavor to answer.