A Book Review
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, begins with two detectives from Northern Ireland descending into high security vaults of a special collection at the Boston College library.
Next and interspersed over the course of the book is the 1974 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, an impoverished single mother of ten children, who was the widow of a Catholic husband, but who had grown up Protestant herself. She was forced out of her Protestant neighborhood by those who never forgave her for marrying a Catholic. But it was in Catholic West Belfast that she was spirited from her apartment by the Provisional IRA. Was she a spy against the IRA? It was assumed to be the case in the suspicious neighborhood she grew up in, but without providing a definitive spoiler, I’ll just say it was quite possibly a huge error that traces back to decisions by the founder of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams.
And then we meet “Arthur’s Daughters,” Delours and Marian Price, who became rock star IRA terrorists in the 1970s and who captivated the world during a hunger strike after being captured in London in March 1973, following a series of explosions they helped to light off throughout the city. Their fame changed the narrative from them being “Arthur’s daughters” to him being the father of “The Price Sisters.”
Always in Say Nothing, there is the presence of Brendan Hughes, Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade, the branch of the Provos that did the dirtiest of the dirty work. He, too, created an international furor when he organized a mass hunger strike while in prison in 1980. He leaned toward socialism without ever making the plunge. And he was the architect of Bloody Friday, a day that left him with self-doubt and remorse. As he said in his Boston College interview:
I remember when the bombs started to go off, I was in Leeson Street, and I thought, “There’s too much here.” I sort of knew there were going to be casualties; either the Brits could not handle so many bombs or they would allow some to go off because it suited them to have casualties. I feel a bit guilty about it because, as I say, there was no intention to kill anyone that day. I have a fair deal of regret that Bloody Friday took place … a great deal of regret … If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t do it
The Troubles
The violence-laden three decades between the late 60s and the Good Friday agreement of 1998 in Northern Ireland have been popularly—and with immense understatedness—dubbed with the quaint little name, The Troubles.
Keefe, a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, stumbled into the story when he heard of Irish detectives arriving at Boston College with full sanction of the US State Department. What were they seeking? Who murdered Mrs. McConville, of course. But why look in Boston? A special archives project that promised lifetime anonymity to soldiers on both the Protestant and Catholic sides of the Troubles had produced thousands of hours of recorded testimony, including the statement by Hughes above. The agreement was that nothing could be revealed until each interviewee died. The problem is the founder of the project at BC failed to have attorneys draw up proper legal papers. The promise of lifetime anonymity was empty. Woops.
The title is drawn from the IRA ethos that the most despicable humans in the world are “snitches.” Good soldiers, and indeed the entire citizenry of Belfast lived with the pressures and traumas of soldiers, were good because they would “say nothing.” Is it any surprise that Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein between 1983 and 2018, has steadfastly stated he was never a member of the IRA, despite countless reports of him being a terrorist mastermind?
So Who Murdered Mrs. McConville?
Engaging. Brilliantly written. Say Nothing reads like a novel but is a concise and illuminating picture of the Troubles—and the historical 20th Century background of the Troubles. Highly recommended with a five-star review.
Oh, by the way, do we discover who murder Jean McConville? Let me just say, yes and no.
Note: In the past year I have begun listening to audio books on long walks. I listened to Say Nothing on Audible, but went ahead and bought the hardcover for easier future reference.
