Say nothing chronicled the history of resistance in Northern Ireland and how these killings and state repression shaped the capital Belfast. The book has three sides of the perspectives about a period called “The Troubles”, that the IRA took extreme measures to fight for Northern Ireland independence from the UK.
The first side is from the McConville family. The ten children, at the youngest age of six, saw their mother kidnapped and disappeared by the IRA members in the 70s. Turned into orphans overnight, they were separated by the social foster system and lived in the shadow of their mother missing for 30 years. They were told that their mother, Jean McConville, was a Brit union sympathizer. This became a stigma for the whole family, had led to Jean’s murder and finally resentment against the whole family throughout the children’s rest of their lives. They demanded answers and justices. These demands were finally met when their Mother’s remains were unearthed in a beach and several testimonies about Jean being a spy.
The second side is mainly from the IRA ex-members Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes. Dolours was a high school student participating in a peaceful march with her sister Marian. The peaceful march calling for justice against irish discrimination and higher level of political freedom turned to extreme violent as the pro-unification British supporters brutally beat up the students.
Dolours found her callings to serve in the IRA to alleviate the inequal treatment of the Irish and to achieve final independence. She was trained as a spy for the IRA, and participated in many actions. She was finally sent to jail when she planned and took part in bombing attacks in London, and was caught in the airport during her escape. The car bombing was supposed to be a stun act as they notify the police before the bomb set off, still two were exploded and around 70 people injured. It was deemed as “terrorism” and the Price sisters were sentenced for life. Dolours then declared that she was a political prisoners and went on a hunger-strike that last for 7 months. The strike had initiated a concerted hunger-strikes and prison protests that raise a lot of awareness of the injustices faced by norther Irish and the establishment of its political wing Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin and IRA worked in parallel, one in the parliament and the other in armed struggles on the streets. This strategy changed the game as somehow a branch of IRA is totally legal; it could raised fund, exert its influence in the parliament and negotiate as an equal with the Brit. However, Sinn Féin also softened the IRA and went in opposite way against the IRA members during the ceasefire. Although the IRA at that time was heavily infiltrated by the brutish intelligence, members were not ready to give up their arms for so little political leverage on immunity and pardonment. That’s what made ex-members like Brendan Hughes felt so helpless and confused. They have struggled so hard for Irish independence, which is now found to be irrelevant. The eerie missions they have committed in the IRA, for the greater cause of independence, now haunted them deeply. They wonder what their life stand for.
The third side came from the author himself and the Boston tapes project founders, serving as interviewers and historians. They interviewed the ex-members, about the truth, hoping to keep a record of what happened in the Troubles. They listened from both side, the IRA as well as the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a British government backed paramilitaries that framed, assassinated and provoked the IRA members. However, their good intention was turn against as the British government acquired the tapes as evidence to prosecute IRA members. The state was the ultimate violent organisation, and it wrote the history. The Troubles was a minor inconvenience to downplay the effect of the IRA “armed struggle” and the IRA members are “terrorists”. Northern Ireland was still traumatized by the Troubles, and the people remains carried on their life, saying nothing.
Reading Say nothing has brought up a lot of questions about what one can do to self-integrity against a malicious authoritarian system. Peaceful activism from the public seemed trivial but armed struggle will put the whole community in danger, especially towards a police-state that are thirsty for blood.
There were people injured in every protest, starting out as peaceful. How much hurt we can bare to play the perfect victim to raise awareness? And will anyone offer actual help, rather than some superficial words of condolences?
Even worse, as time shift, will the later generations continue our fight when the state surround them with material comforts and brainwashing? What if indifference built up? What if causes important now becomes irrelevant later? Or do we still have a next generation, when our generations are arrested, disappeared and murdered?
Most importantly, as an individual, what can I do for myself and for us?