Say Nothing
A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Event
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In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it.
Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders. From radical and impetuous I.R.A. terrorists to the spy games and dirty schemes of the British Army — Say Nothing conjures a world of passion, betrayal, vengeance, and anguish.
Join the New America's Fellows Program and Solid State Books for a conversation with Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, and Nicholas Schmidle, Staff Writer at the New Yorker, about the violence and aftermath of Northern Ireland’s most complicated chapters of history.
Speakers:
Patrick Radden Keefe, @praddenkeefe
2017 National Fellow, New America
Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Author, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Nicholas Schmidle, @nickschmidle
2014 National Fellow, New America
Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Copies of Say Nothing will be available for purchase through our bookselling partner Solid State Books, and a book signing will follow the discussion.
Follow the conversation online using #SayNothing and following @NAFellows.