From infamous members such as Dolours Price and the mastermind known only as The Dark, to the spy games played by the British Army, we get a comprehensive look at the organization’s history and path travelled.

While some of them felt they were justified acts of war, others aren’t so certain anymore, and begin to realize they were simply senseless murders, the weight of which is only amplified by the I.R.A.’s failure to united Ireland according to their vision. members of various status recall those years. He not only investigates how the regular people living outside of it all were affected, but also how I.R.A. What might have ended up a single crime was, unbeknownst to many, only the beginning of some very paranoid, tense and violent decades to come.Īfter taking an in-depth look at the crime itself, Keefe then walks along with us through the years which followed, exploring a society profoundly affected by a strange and horrific type of inner guerrilla warfare. The case we are brought into the fold through is the infamous kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville which shook the United Kingdom for decades to come.Ī thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, she was dragged away from her home by masked men, never to be seen again (in 2003, a set of human bones was identified as Jean McConville). was formed, officially labelled as the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Keefe opens the book in 1972, three years after the new I.R.A. In his non-fiction book titled Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe delves into the country’s past like few others have done on this side of the ocean. Despite our various progresses in terms of globalization, we are still incredibly far from being united as humans, and the troubles pervading a single country often remain unknown outside of its borders.Īs foreigners, we might catch glimpses here and there, but the big picture will remain hidden from us… which is exactly what happened to a majority of us in regards to the tumultuous conflicts which shaped Northern Ireland in the past few decades. It is no secret pretty much every country on this planet has some sort of dark and violent period in its history, whether it be recent or traced back to its foundation. Patrick Radden Keefe Digs into a Past of Violence

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe