Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing, Essay Example

The vicious battle in Northern Ireland and its outcome is one of the most defining moments in Western Europe’s modern history. By analyzing the situation, most people would conclude it was a fight for survival between two groups: one wanted Northern Ireland to become an independent state, and another believed it should be separated. The rivalry between the two groups became so intense that it reflected itself in social organizations and structures. For example, it was clear that people who supported the British received widespread prejudice regarding things such as job opportunities or employment. While no longer as bloody as when it had climaxed, the conflict still separates people in Northern Ireland. There is always a feeling that the different needs of the conflicting groups will never be compatible. Also, some groups will always feel short-changed, whichever way the country chooses. Various artists have written books and analyzed its historical context, implications, and aftermath to understand how the bitter Northern Ireland conflict impacted. A great example of such an artist is Patrick Radden Keefe in his 2018 work of literature, Say Nothing.

Summary

In 1972, a 38-year-old woman named Jean McConville was kidnapped from her house, and it would take several decades before her fate became clear to her loved ones. She was a mother of 10, but she was brutally separated from her children on a fateful day by people who hid behind face masks. While her children tried to cling to her, they could do nothing to save her. For most people, it was clear who was responsible: the I.R.A. Still, no one dared to come forward and accuse the group public. Accordingly, the family had no option other than to live for years without knowing her eventual fate. In 2003, McConville’s remains were found in a beach – more than three decades later. They identified her by a blue safety pin that she often used while taking care of her children. The case of McConville is critical in understanding the devastating effect of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It indicated the havoc the situation had caused for a majority of the citizens of the nations. McConville and her family are not the only people who suffered, but many other families wondered whether the bloody outcome of the war had a justification. For an independent observer, some of the cats by different competing groups amounted to crimes against humanity. Keefe starts with McConville’s case and shows the world the devastating repercussions of the decades-long conflict.

Analysis

Analyzing the implication of significant conflicts means that people have to study its historical impact on people. The peace should always honor the people who lost their lives or possessions during the war. Keefe tries to reconcile the bitter Northern Ireland past with the modern realization of what it cost the nation. The stories in the book offer a moral tool for reflecting the atrocities committed during the decades of conflict in the country before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. By the time the nation made this agreement, it had devastated most of them and resulted in a fragmented society. For most people, the actions that happened during the conflict were terrible irrespective of their opinion on the issue dividing the nation. Morally, people felt that the war was destructive and a lousy illustration of resolving conflict, especially in Western Europe (Drong). The belief is that Westerners are the most civilized, and hence, they would never engage in brutal acts during the conflict. Yet, the Northern Ireland case shows that wars are situations that never follow rational approaches. As such, Northern Ireland indicates how easy it has become for war to lead people to engage in methods that are considered immoral.

Keefe, the analyst of the situation in Northern Ireland, is a great way to have an independent and external analysis of the problem. He was never directly involved in the conflict since he is an American, but it was essential to see how other people viewed the war due to his Irish ancestry. The fact that Keefe is of Irish ancestry helps also show how people associated with the nation tried to get involved in the war. For example, people of Irish ancestry helped fund and support the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A). Furthermore, they were critical in pushing the 1998 agreement, which ended the war. U.S. President Bill Clinton was the international figure associated with the end of the brutal conflict. The book acknowledges that each of the conflicting parties committed many atrocities. However, the focus on McConville’s case is critical in understanding how the ordinary citizens became negatively impacted by the war, irrespective of their opinions. According to the group, McConville acted as an informant for the British. Despite no evidence of this, her ten children would never enjoy the presence of their mother again.

The two main characters in Keefe’s book are McConville, and her killer, Dolours Price. Price was an ardent follower of the I.R.A. and had joined its course in her teenage years. She rapidly built her reputation as one of the group’s most influential members, mainly due to her propensity for violence. Her notorious actions include bombings in London and robberies in banks, which she did while wearing attires associated with Catholic nuns. She wore catholic nuns’ clothing seems to have been a symbolic move as the Catholic Church was central to the conflict. Price and others became entangled in the kidnapping and eventual murder of the single mother of 10 suspected to be working against her organization (Chersicla). The violent acts she committed quickly made her an infamous figure in England, but for the I.R.A., she was considered a true revolutionary. It is also an indication that people’s perceptions depend on the side they support in conflicts such as the Northern Irish civil war. Accordingly, for Price, her action was part of her way of telling the world how she felt the country should become.

On the other hand, McConville’s life was relatively obscure, albeit without Keefe’s analysis. She was an ordinary single mother who was caught up in the conflict and struggled to take care of her large family. She had managed to work and provide for her family for most of her life, but one night in 1972 completely changed her family’s life. She got kidnapped, and her family never saw her alive ever again. The most devastating part of the story is how she left her family and why an ordinary mother struggling to help her children would meet such a brutal end. The disappearance of McConville did not become mainstream at the time. Because of her relatively obscure life and the fact that she was considered an enemy by the I.R.A. Her disappearance had a devastating effect since it not only broke her family into pieces; the children found themselves shipped to extremely punishing institutions. The children would never have a proper family, and worse, they would live separated due to a war they had very little connection (Gilker 19). The only mistake they committed was to be in Belfast when there were many suspicions over various members of the society regarding their allegiance to the I.R.A. cause.

McConville’s fate became apparent more than 30 years later. In 2003, recovered remains on a beach revealed her fate. Her children had a sense of closure when they identified her body but never received the motherly they would have had if the conflict had not started in the first place. Price confessed that she was part of the armed group that raided her home, kidnapped her, brutally dispatched before dumping her body in an unmarked grave along the beach. The description of the cold-hearted nature of how McConville met her death is a chilling and heart-wrenching moment. According to Price, she and two other roles involved taking care of the McConville problem. Price not only admits to murder but provides an ominous description of the events, including how she deliberately missed shooting her. It also indicates the conflict among the people fighting against each other. While the groups were involved in horrific acts, not all participants felt comfortable taking the lives of ordinary citizens. Groups that target ordinary citizens soon find that people never support their cause, as their aim is always to let as many citizens as possible join the struggle.

The murder of McConville was an act that conflicted with many of the people’s ideals during the war. The people involved in the murder regretted it, yet they seem to have had no other option than to participate in the heinous crime. Keefe discusses how the killer later drowned their depression and anger by drinking heavily. Even for people who were perpetrators of the horrific crimes, it was challenging to devastate the ordinary lives of citizens. McConville was a spy for the killers and gave the much-hated British authorities information. Yet, even after choosing to help the British, the people involved in the conflict felt it was better to win the minds and hearts of such citizens (Chersicla). So, once assigned to take care of the British informant, they did, albeit reluctantly. It was a duty for them, but also it conflicted with how they viewed the struggle that should pan out among the populace. For Keefe, McConville was a British informant that was never adequately established. She became one of the many victims of a war that they contributed very little to escalate.

The confession by Price is an illustration of the conflict that arises when people get involved in actions that result in guilt feeling. According to how the narrative unravels, the capacity for guilt has its limitations. The killers felt very guilty that they killed an ordinary mother of 10. Yet for them, they always believed that she was an informant, and at no time did they consider that they could have had the wrong information. Keefe shows how decades later, an investigation never revealed her informant role, as no documents associated her with spying. Still, it does not mean she would have never helped British authorities in their attempt to crush the rebellion. However, the sense of guilt indicates how the actions by I.R.A and other groups devastated the victims and the perpetrators. It reinforces the idea that everyone is a loser during wars, even if one of the conflicting parties concedes defeat. It is difficult to live knowing that one wrecked many innocent families’ lives since they had different ideas on how the nation should develop. The book needed to reveal the war’s devastating effect on its proponents and opposers.

Keefe also reveals the aftermath of the 1998 peace accord, which ended the bloody conflict. For most people who fought for the island’s unification, the terms of the deal did not satisfy their desires. For example, Price and other militias who fought in the field felt that the agreement meagerly addressed the issues that had started the war (Barrett). Many people felt disenchanted, and the devastating destruction throughout the nation felt like a complete waste of resources, time, and human lives. It seems to be part of the reason it left a bitter-sweet taste for people like Price, who committed horrific crimes, such as dragging a woman away from her terrified family. Irrespective of the outcomes, such actions would leave many bitter people behind, meaning even after winning, they would still have a society where some people still feel angry at each other. No number of victories, concessions, or agreements after such horrific outcomes would create a more cohesive community. The volunteers who often had to kill still are part of the society that destroyed many lives. It was difficult for people to confess their crimes, and Keefe had to publish interviews following the death of participants.

In the book, Keefe reveals how disenfranchised the revolutionaries were, especially with their leader, Gerry Adams. Adams was often considered a terrorist but had transformed his image into a revolutionary politician by the 1990s. For most of the volunteers, people like Adamas forced them to participate in horrific acts such as the cold-blooded murder of McConville. Years later, Adams would continue to become a mysterious figure, denying his involvement in I.R.A. brutalities. The denial that he had ordered volunteers such as Price to execute suspected informants meant that the people who committed the actual crimes would not only live with the moral burden but would remain disenfranchised by the outcomes of the peace deal. In the end, Adams had disassociated himself entirely with the I.R.A and even became a member of parliament via Sien Fein, a group that ultimately moved away from I.R.A. The sense of exhaustion helped end the bloody conflict, but its devastating impacts still haunt the citizens today. There was an emerging theme of betrayal and post-traumatic stress after witnessing or getting involved in horrific crimes. Keefe shows how the ideas of the nation got lost years later, and the people who had to do the dirty work had to live with the memories till their death.

Conclusion

Keefe’s story, Say Nothing, exemplifies civil wars’ devastating effect on their citizens. It shows the consequences of participating in violence, the aftermath of such events for victims and perpetrators, and the politics of betrayal and forgetfulness. Harrowingly, Keefe’s book is one of the best descriptions of the events in Ireland and the aftermath. McConville might have been an obscure single mother of 10. Still, her demise after Price and others forcefully kidnapped her from her protesting children is an excellent illustration of what happened during the devastating war. The author helps the audience feel the pall of the incomprehensibility of the situation in Ireland. In the end, the nation achieved peace after the 1998 agreement. But for the people who experienced the events, the war seemed to have cost more than benefit. Say Nothing expertly narrates the war events that devastated Irish people for decades and emphasizes the consequences it had on the victims and the perpetrators.

Works Cited

Barrett, Devlin. Tale of a woman who died and a woman killed in the Northern Ireland conflict. The Washington Post, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/tale-of-a-woman-who-died-and-a-woman-who-killed-in-the-northern-ireland-conflict/2019/03/08/59e75dd4-2ecd-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html [Accessed on December 18, 2021]

Chersicla, Rick. Book Review of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Patrick Radden Keefe. Army University Press, https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/MR-Book-Reviews/July-2021/Book-Review-003/

Drong, Leszek.  Remembering a Transcultural Past: Recent Post-Tribal Fictions of the Seventies Ardoyne. Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction 61(114), https://www.doi.org.10.1080/00111619.2019.1687416

Gilker Sadie. Belfast’s Sites of Conflict and Structural Violence: An Exploration of the Transformation of Public Spaces through Theatre and Performance. Master Thesis at Concordia University, https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/987836/7/Gilker_MA_S2021.pdf [Accessed on December 18, 2021]