Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland

Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland
Patrick Radden Keefe

‘A must read’ Gillian FlynnOne night in December 1972, Jean McConville, a mother of ten, was abducted from her home in Belfast and never seen alive again. Her disappearance would haunt her orphaned children, the perpetrators of this terrible crime and a whole society in Northern Ireland for decades.In this powerful, scrupulously reported book, Patrick Radden Keefe offers not just a forensic account of a brutal crime but a vivid portrait of the world in which it happened. The tragedy of an entire country is captured in the spellbinding narrative of a handful of characters, presented in lyrical and unforgettable detail.A poem by Seamus Heaney inspires the title: ‘Whatever You Say, Say Nothing’. By defying the culture of silence, Keefe illuminates how a close-knit society fractured; how people chose sides in a conflict and turned to violence; and how, when the shooting stopped, some ex-combatants came to look back in horror at the atrocities they had committed, while others continue to advocate violence even today.Say Nothing deftly weaves the stories of Jean McConville and her family with those of Dolours Price, the first woman to join the IRA as a front-line soldier, who bombed the Old Bailey when barely out of her teens; Gerry Adams, who helped bring an end to the fighting, but denied his own IRA past; Brendan Hughes, a fearsome IRA commander who turned on Adams after the peace process and broke the IRA’s code of silence; and other indelible figures. By capturing the intrigue, the drama and the profound human cost of the Troubles, the book presents a searing chronicle of the lengths that people are willing to go to in pursuit of a political ideal, and the ways in which societies mend – or don’t – in the aftermath of a long and bloody conflict.

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Copyright (#ub92543cc-6920-5589-96dd-e5fb7c8f094b)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018

Copyright © Patrick Radden Keefe 2018

Cover image © L’Europeo RCS/ph.Stefano Archetti

Title page image: Aerial photograph of Divis Flats, Belfast, from 1982 (Judah Passow)

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace and acknowledge copyright holders for images used in this book and the publishers will be pleased to rectify any omissions in future editions.

Patrick Radden Keefe asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008159252

Ebook Edition © November 2018 ISBN: 9780008159276

Version: 2018-10-25

Dedication (#ub92543cc-6920-5589-96dd-e5fb7c8f094b)

To Lucian and Felix

Contents

Cover (#u02e3e941-acfc-511b-9fe9-127b93e719d7)

Title Page (#ud2b8ccb0-5509-586e-ac09-9c6b52d1e56e)

Copyright (#uced7f553-b0f9-503a-b273-3d349aff9253)

Dedication (#u4343a231-3a45-5694-97db-7c2492c0cdee)

Map (#u119dc8d6-ffe5-5df6-be96-2d633a9e6f09)

Epigraph (#uac9c74e5-627b-52cf-a439-d9e835070bbe)

PROLOGUE: The Treasure Room (#u60be9502-8b7c-5528-96b9-8ec84498eae2)

BOOK ONE: THE CLEAR, CLEAN, SHEER THING (#u4ff57d01-9a85-5ec5-867d-b81abf6b133e)

1 An Abduction (#u7f330c17-bd66-5c1f-9fa0-9deb20479f51)

2 Albert’s Daughters (#uf61e7122-cbd6-58bd-b99c-f41638d3a80c)

3 Evacuation (#u8b6f39cf-e4dc-5ee9-a50a-f2e5de6f5cd5)

4 An Underground Army (#uca8cdcd1-82f1-5471-8811-75c672168aa0)

5 St Jude’s Walk (#u65e04099-e8eb-5e02-9b41-f3db170a031f)

6 The Dirty Dozen (#u399af4f0-b680-59a3-a849-dab48e88b88d)

7 The Little Brigadier (#u39e938fb-e239-598a-aedb-9ac096eed7b5)

8 The Cracked Cup (#u22056468-079d-5a59-b0c3-f9dc926634af)

9 Orphans (#uf3f9a6f1-c572-5f60-b302-26e4d1840058)

10 The Freds (#uc278feed-c908-5c95-b824-a4bc5cd19464)

BOOK TWO: HUMAN SACRIFICE (#uff9cab26-0465-55de-948b-fc8bb25516dd)

11 Close England! (#u8d02ca98-ced4-5afe-8924-4242196051d5)

12 The Belfast Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

13 The Toy Salesman (#litres_trial_promo)

14 The Ultimate Weapon (#litres_trial_promo)

15 Captives (#litres_trial_promo)

16 A Clockwork Doll (#litres_trial_promo)

17 Field Day (#litres_trial_promo)

18 The Bloody Envelope (#litres_trial_promo)