Say Nothing summary

In 1969, disillusioned Catholics in Northern Ireland had one thing on their minds: getting the British out of Ireland. Three of these people, Gerry Adams and the sisters Dolours and Marian Price, would soon become key players in the Troubles.

Since the partition of Ireland in 1921, the small island had been split in two: the Republic of Ireland, where Catholics held power and formed the overwhelming majority of the population, and Northern Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom and under the control of the British Government.

During the three decades of the Troubles, any unfamiliar car parked on a Belfast street could cause public panic – and with good reason. In both Northern Ireland and England, IRA car bombs caused bloodshed and mayhem on an unprecedented scale.

Car bombs had two main advantages for the IRA. Firstly, they were driven to their destination rather than carried, so they could be much heavier and packed with more explosives. Secondly, a car was perfect camouflage for a bomb. A smaller device left on the street might quickly get noticed, but a car could be safely parked for many hours without attracting police attention.

After Marian and Dolours Price were arrested for the bombing campaign in London, they were swiftly charged, tried and sentenced to 20 years in jail. As they had committed their crimes in England, the British Government decided to incarcerate the sisters there rather than in Northern Ireland.

But the Price sisters had other ideas, and demanded that they be transferred back to a Northern Irish prison. When their request went unheeded, they turned their own bodies into a battleground by going on hunger strike.

During the Troubles, with bombs exploding and the British Government at loggerheads with the IRA, the children of Jean McConville continued to search for answers. What really happened to their mother on that cold night in December 1972?

In recent years, the dreadful answer has become clear.

But what happened to Gerry Adams, the senior IRA man who several sources said had ordered Jean’s murder? Was he ever held accountable for her death? The answer, quite simply, is no. Instead, Adams was hailed around the world as a force for peace and compromise.

Adams, who was then the leader of the political wing of the IRA, signed the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998. The agreement paved the way for a permanent cessation of violence by the IRA. In return for this ceasefire, British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed that Northern Ireland would be granted a fully devolved parliament and a much softer border with the Republic of Ireland. He also promised that if a majority in Northern Ireland expressed a clear wish to join with the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain would not stand in their way.