Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

A short prologue reveals the opening of a murder investigation. In July 2013, Irish detectives flew to Boston, Massachusetts, to collect highly confidential and guarded files in Boston College’s John Burns Library. Though unstated in the prologue, the author quickly reveals the context: These files, stored in the titular “Treasure Room” within the library, pertained to the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a Belfast mother and widow, during “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

One December night in 1972, at least eight armed and masked intruders stormed the Belfast residence of Jean McConville and her 10 children. The intrusion seemingly came out of nowhere; Jean had just gotten out of the bath, and her eldest daughter was picking up take-away food in town.

The scene was chaotic. Jean pulled on clothes as the intruders ushered her out of the apartment, “offering blunt assurances” that she would be back to the young children clinging to her limbs and crying (8).

Jean’s oldest son, Archie, negotiated to accompany his mother. The masked gang marched the pair through the dark and silent Divis Flats complex where the family lived and up to a van. Archie realized that it was neighbors, not strangers, who constituted this gang.