NEW YORK — Looking for a weekend watch? Well, for fans of historical drama, FX’s series “Say Nothing” brings one of Ireland’s most compelling true stories to the screen.
It is based on the book, “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe.
It’s been said that in war everyone believes they are on the right side. That’s certainly the case in “Say Nothing.”
The FX series brings to life the story of “The Troubles” era in Northern Ireland, a period of violent conflict between Catholic Ireland and Protestant England.
So, how much of this series is factual?
“All of it. This story, for me, started in a kind of funny place. The first section of the newspaper my father reads is the obituary page. He calls it the Irish sports pages. And, I found the obituary of Dolores Price, and I just read about this real woman and the fascinating life she had lived. And so I wrote, initially this book that came out in 2019 and then we’d spent the last five years making the series. It’s a true story, and we want to bring you this very dramatic truth of the lives of these characters,” Radden Keefe said.
Characters like Jean McConville and Dolores Price, a mother of 10, torn from her family, and a young woman who would become one of the most notorious figures of The Troubles.
“The way this whole thing started for me was I learned there was a connection between that woman, Dolores Price, and then this victim, Jean McConville, and I wanted to sort of explore that mystery. How is it that these two women were connected? And so that’s really the way into this story. You meet them both right at the beginning of the show, and we follow their story for decades,” he said.
“How involved were you in the adaptation process?” Eyewitness News Entertainment Reporter Joelle Garguilo asked.
“I was going back and forth between New York, where I live, and Northern Ireland. I mean, there is a culture there, a kind of, you know, it’s almost like the mafia with Omerta, right? The idea of you just don’t talk about these things, slowly, slowly trying to persuade people to open up,” Radden Keefe said. “There was an oral history project in which what happened was that they were doing these recordings for these IRA people. And say, tell us the whole story. We won’t release the tape until after you’re dead.”
“what’s the first thing we should know about ‘Say Nothing?'” Garguilo asked.
“It’s about a very divided society when people choose to use violence, and how much of a mistake that might be,” He said. “This is like a 10-year project now between the book and the show, and I wanted it to be good, and the response has been incredible.”
The result is a series that explores the cost of violence, the weight of secrets, and the lines people cross in the name of a cause.
“Say Nothing” is streaming now on Hulu. Disney is the parent company of Hulu and this station.
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