Say Nothing : A True Story of Murder and Memory in Norther Ireland
By Patrick Radden Keefe
ARTICLE BY CAROL H .
At the age of 38 , Jean McConville , a widowed mother of 10 children , was abducted from her small flat in a ” dank and hulking ” public housing complex in West Belfast in 1972 . Jean ’ s children spent the next 30 years trying to find out what happened to her . Jean is one of the many ” disappeared ” of the Troubles , the 30-year nationalistic period of conflict in Northern Ireland , in which the ultimate goal was to remove the British from the Irish island . Jean ’ s bones , which were found on a beach in 2003 , were still clinging to the dress she wore during her abduction . Who was responsible for killing her ? Was she a tout ( informer ) for the British army , an unforgivable crime in Irish eyes , and if so , why ?
The story of Jean and her children is one of many about unforgettable characters that the author uses to illustrate the patriotism , conviction , violence , destruction , and heartbreaking futility that accompanied the Troubles . The war was fought primarily in the streets of West Belfast by the paramilitary Irish Republican Army ( IRA ), who often crippled their own efforts with their devastating shootings , bombings , and hunger strikes . The Good Friday Agreement in
1998 brought a fragile peace to Northern Ireland , but many IRA fighters felt they were betrayed by their own leaders , including Gerry Adams . With the conviction of “ rifles for ballots ,” Mr . Adams denied his central involvement in and backing of the IRA and turned to politics . Although an instrumental approach in obtaining peace in the area , the author leaves the question open as to if the tactics of Mr . Adams and other IRA leaders were justified and should not be left unquestioned .
For many of us , reading the book was an eye-opening clarification of the Irish conflict and shed new light on the significance of the Irish – English border during the Brexit discussion . Reading like a novel , it jumped from character to character as it slowly spanned the thirty years of conflict . But the book also prompted us to ask questions about the history of the English in Ireland , leading us to the next book in our short Irish series .
Comment
This is an excellent book of nonfiction narrative . It is an extremely well-researched account of the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland , told through the stories of one victim “ disappeared ” in 1972 and three perpetrators . The stories and facts are masterfully woven so that it reads like a crime novel but presents in-depth documentation of the Troubles and some of its leading figures up to recent years .
— Carol S . www . awchamburg . org 43
MC Escher by Ulrike H .