Also, there are a lot of countries in the world.
This book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe is an incredible story of the civil war in Northern Ireland. The situation was closely tied to the people and politics of the Republic of Ireland, which is why I am counting this book toward Ireland rather than the UK. Also, I already wrote about the UK.
The story looks at the 1972 disappearance of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10. Keefe wants to know what happened to McConville, why, and who was responsible. This, of course, involves a complicated history, networks of terrorists and collaborators, and ruthless political tactics. As with so many situations in the world, this is a story where you can take sides but still abhor the results; you can also stay neutral because there are so many bad actors and innocent bystanders on both sides, too. What you can’t do is pretend that it didn’t happen or didn’t matter.
Keefe’s reporting is thorough. He talks to seemingly everyone he can, and he reads documents and listens to recordings when he can’t talk to people. The biggest shock? Margaret Thatcher was not as monstrous as I would have thought, and Keefe has the receipts to prove that.
It also crystallized something for me. One of the many tragedies of King Charles’s life is that he has to regularly make nice with the man who ordered the execution of his godfather, Lord Mountbatten. I’d have a hard time shaking hands.
