Disney drama falls foul of Troubles families

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As historical dramas go, the new Disney series about Northern Ireland’s Troubles, Say Nothing, delivers in spades. It has convincing characters, authentic accents, a gripping plot and a powerful ending. But is it true?

That question is under the spotlight after Marian Price, a former member of the IRA, this month began legal action against Disney: the series showed her murdering a widowed mother of 10 in 1972 in one of the most heinous episodes of the Troubles.

Dramas based on real events attract millions of viewers who may believe they are accurate — but often cross the line on historical facts. The grey areas are particularly sensitive in Northern Ireland, where many victims of the three-decades long conflict are still waiting, in the words of Hilary Benn, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, for “information, accountability and acknowledgment” — in other words, the truth.

Delivering it is problematic — facts can be disputed and there is deep mistrust. On the day Price’s legal action was announced, Benn laid out the first steps towards dismantling the previous UK government’s much reviled Legacy Act, which stopped inquests into Troubles atrocities.

But some victims and rights groups believed Benn was himself being economical with the truth: he vowed inquests would restart, but precisely when would depend on passing legislation whose timing was unclear. Martina Dillon, who has led legal challenges to the Act, slammed the statement as “a lot of spin . . . I deserve the truth”.

The Troubles have proved fertile ground for films and literature but whether or not Say Nothing reveals the truth about Jean McConville’s fate — and who pulled the trigger — depends on who you ask.

Patrick Radden Keefe, who wrote the award-winning book on which the drama is based (he is an executive producer on the show) said he depicts a “true human story”. But such phrasing is slippery: Máiría Cahill, who was raped by a senior IRA man while a teenager, has blasted the use of the word “stories” to describe her ordeal.

The show opens with McConville’s abduction in front of her children — the IRA considered her an informer, a crime it punished with death — and climaxes with her shooting. She was one of the Disappeared — 17 people murdered and secretly buried by the IRA; four have yet to be found.

Each episode ends with a disclaimer stating that Gerry Adams, longtime former leader of Sinn Féin, then the IRA’s political wing, has always denied belonging to the IRA or participating in IRA violence.

The final disclaimer adds that Price, who with her sister Dolours was jailed for her role in the 1973 IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in London, “also denies any involvement in the murder of Jean McConville”. But Peter Corrigan, Price’s lawyer, says that is not enough and the denouement is “totally fabricated”.

Price, also known by her married name McGlinchey, was not arrested in a police inquiry into McConville’s death in 2014 because there was not “a single iota of evidence”, Corrigan told the FT. Disney and Radden Keefe were contacted for comment.

Allison Morris, the Belfast Telegraph’s crime correspondent — who interviewed Dolours Price before her death in 2013 — saw “considerable poetic license” in Say Nothing, but certainly not in all of it.

Such different versions of events will be on display when a British paratrooper identified as Soldier F goes on trial over the massacre of unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday in 1972. A date for the trial is to be set in early 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges.

Whether truth or fiction, one of McConville’s sons, Michael, criticised Disney for making “entertainment” from “our reality”. But relatives of Joe Lynskey, another missing victim depicted in the series, finally began hoping for a happy ending. Just after the show’s debut last month, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains exhumed a grave in County Monaghan in Ireland whose details “coincide” with his disappearance in 1972. And as a direct result of Say Nothing it has a new lead on Columba McVeigh, missing since 1975.

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