Say nothing : a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland / Patrick Radden Keefe.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780385521314
- ISBN: 0385521316
- Physical Description: xii, 441 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
- Publisher: New York : Doubleday, 2019.
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | McConville, Jean. Irish Republican Army. Abduction > Northern Ireland > History. Murder > Northern Ireland > History. |
Available copies
- 6 of 10 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 10 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Rupert Library | 364.152 Keef (Text) | 33294002073096 | Adult Non-Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 February #2
Keefe, a New Yorker staff writer, uses the abduction of a widow and mother of 10 children, ranging in age from 20 to 6, from their squalid Belfast apartment in 1972, as the entry point for a deep-diving history of the conflict in Northern Ireland and its immense aftershocks. The secrecy that fueled all aspects of the conflict is emphasized throughout, starting with the prologue, in which Keefe details how detectives from the Northern Ireland Police search the Boston College Library in 2013 for secret files relating to the murder of Jean McConville, the long-ago abducted woman. Keefe spent four years researching this book, traveling seven times to Northern Ireland and conducting more than 100 interviews. The book is an extensive and often wrenching view of this bloody patch of history, especially fascinating in the way Keefe shows how indoctrination worked at the family level. While he identifies it as narrative nonfiction, the writing here is more straight historical account, rather than an immersive exploration, but it will definitely draw those interested in the Irish Troubles. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2019 March
Say NothingJean McConville was 38 years old in December 1972 when a masked man kidnapped her from her flat in a bleak housing project in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her 10 children, some of whom were clinging to her legs as she was dragged from her home, never saw her again. It was soon rumored that McConville, a Protestant once married to a Catholic, had been snatchedâand probably executedâby the outlawed provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army because she was an informer.
So begins Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, The New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe's gripping, revelatory and unsettling account of McConville's murder and its reverberations throughout the 30-year spasm of violence known as the "troubles," which left 3,500 dead in its wake. To tell the story, Keefe delves into a long and devastating history of open and hidden conflict, parts of which remain entombed within the IRA's code of silence. With visceral detail, he describes life in the embattled neighborhoods, where suspicion and betrayal festered on all sides. Keefe also offers compelling portraits of some of the leading figures in the conflict, among them Gerry Adams, who helped broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to armed conflict. He went on to preside over Sinn Féin, sometimes called the political arm of the IRA.
But the most riveting figure in this narrative is Dolours Price. She and her younger sister, Marian, were radicalized as students after a peaceful march for union with Ireland was violently attacked. Described as having a quick tongue, flaming red hair and a peacock personality, she was chosen by Adams for an elite squad. She played a part in McConville's abduction, organized a car bombing attack on London and, when imprisoned, led a hunger strike that inflamed the romantic revolutionary imagination. But as a true believer, she, along with others, was devastated when Adams first denied that he was ever in the IRA and then brokered a peace agreement that did not include the unification of Ireland. She was, allegedly, not an inherently violent person, and she was left wondering what it was all for. Which is one of the most profound and unanswerable questions this searing book will leave in a reader's mind.
Copyright 2019 BookPage Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2018 December #2
Half a century after the fact, a cold case in Northern Ireland provides a frame for a deeply observed history of the Troubles.In 1972, though only 38, Jean McConville was the mother of 10, trying to raise them on a widow's pension in a cloud of depressionâa walking tale of bad luck turned all the worse when she comforted a wounded British soldier, bringing the dreaded graffito "Brit lover" to her door. Not long after, masked guerrillas took her from her home in the Catholic ghetto of Belfast; three decades later, bones found on a remote beach were identified as hers. These events are rooted in centuries of discord, but, as New Yorker staff writer Keefe (The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, 2009, etc.) recounts, the kidnapping and killing took place in the darkest days of the near civil war between Catholics and Protestants. Another Belfast graffito of the time read, "If you're not confused you don't know what's going on," and t he author does an excellent job of keeping an exceedingly complicated storyline on track. At its heart is Gerry Adams, who eventually brokered the truce between warring factions while insisting that he was never a member of the IRA, whose fighters killed McConville. "Of course he was in the IRA," said an erstwhile comrade. "The British know it. The people on the street know it. The dogs know it on the street." Yet, as this unhappy story shows, one of the great sorrows of Northern Ireland is that naming murderers, even long after their crimes and even after their deaths, is sure to bring terrible things on a person even today. Keefe's reconstruction of events and the players involved is careful and assured. Adams himself doubtless won't be pleased with it, although his cause will probably prevail. As the author writes, "Adams will probably not live to see a united Ireland, but it seems that such a day will inevitably come"âperhaps as an indirect, ironic result of Brexit . A harrowing story of politically motivated crime that could not have been better told. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2019 January #1
In 1972, Jean McConville, single mother of ten, was believed to be an informant for the British army. For that reason, she was kidnapped by a group of masked IRA (Irish Republican Army) members and never heard from again. Three decades later, her remains were uncovered. Sandwiched in the decades in-between was the violent conflict in Northern Ireland commonly known as the Troubles. The story of McConville and the Troubles is told here by
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.New Yorker staff writer Keefe (The Snakehead and Chatter ). Shifting focus between the people involved in the IRA, such as Dolours Price, Gerry Adams, and Brendan Hughes, and McConville and her family, the author illustrates how interconnected Northern Ireland was during the conflict and how trauma, as well as silence about trauma, can destroy individuals, families, and communities. Drawing on controversial oral histories from Boston College as well as personal interviews, archival materials, affidavits, newspapers, memoirs, and a variety of other sources, Keefe blends threads of espionage, murder mystery, and political history into a single captivating narrative.VERDICT Keefe deftly turns a complicated and often dark subject into a riveting and informative page-turner that will engage readers of both true crime and popular history.âTimothy Berge, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2018 December #3
Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.New Yorker staff writer Keefe (Snakehead ) incorporates a real-life whodunit into a moving, accessible account of the violence that has afflicted Northern Ireland. The mystery concerns Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, who was snatched from her Belfast home by an IRA gang in 1972. While Keefe touches on historical antecedents, his real starting point is the 1960s, when advocates of a unified Ireland attempted to emulate the nonviolent methods of the American civil rights movement. The path from peaceful protests to terrorist bombings is framed by the story of Dolours Price, who became involved as a teenager and went on to become a central figure in the IRA. While formal charges were never brought against republican leader Gerry Adams in McConville's murder, Keefe makes a persuasive case that McConville was killed at his order for being an informer to the Britishâand the author's dogged detective work enables him to plausibly name those who literally pulled the trigger. Tinged with immense sadness, this work never loses sight of the humanity of even those who committed horrible acts in support of what they believed in. Agent: Tina Bennett, WME. (Feb.)