This book has been on my to read list for a while, and I
didn’t know until I picked it up that the author also had written Empire of
Pain, a book my partner really enjoyed. So I was excited to pick it up. I
think there are some issues with the framing of the story, but overall this was
a really intriguing and impressive look at the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The book opens with detectives heading to Boston College to
investigate a murder. From there it jumps back twenty or so years and starts
telling us about the night Jean McConville was abducted from her home of ten
children. It jumps again and starts telling us the history of the Troubles.
Some characters of note are the Price sisters, Dolores and Miriam; the
McConville children of course; and a few other IRA members. The focus jumps
around a little bit to update us on everyone as the Troubles progress, up to
the car bombs in London and the jailing of Dolores and Miriam and all the
hunger strikers, including Bobby Sands and nine others that died in jail. We
then get to Gerry Adams going into politics and orchestrating the Good Friday
Agreement that ended the violence.
In the aftermath, a former IRA member Mackers starts setting
up oral histories of the IRA with members, under the agreement that it wouldn’t
be released until the members died. However, investigations into the handful of
folks disappeared by the IRA jumps the gun and soon oral histories are being
requested to investigate the murder of Jean McConville. There’s a whole back
and forth about whether to hand the tapes over and Boston College capitulates.
Unfortunately though, not many folks talked about her death. It’s Keefe himself
who takes it on himself to put together the pieces, and through a few fragments
he manages to place Miriam Price at the location of the murder and likely the
person who pulled the fatal trigger. The book ends with this narrative about
the author and reflection on the writing process of this book and memories of
the IRA.
It did take me a while to get into the book, I was primarily
interested in the murder and the book departs from that narrative for the
majority of the text. It felt a bit clickbait-y, the way it opens with the
murder and intrigue and then departs to give a whole history of an entire
movement first. Once the second half comes though with the discussion of the
aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and the debate around these tapes I was
more absorbed. I feel like there was a framing that could be worked out that
makes this more a history of the Troubles, but I do understand if Keefe is
interested in publishing his theory of the murder that this framing would make
sense to him. So hard to say which would be better for the work as a whole.
I was also extremely impressed with the depth of the work.
Keefe explicitly talks about memory and tries to corroborate accounts when
possible, and make use of direct quotes. He was able to talk to a lot of folks,
like the McConville children, and the folks making the oral history. Many other
also refused to talk to him, but the depth is so impressive. Multiple
characters are detailed out, and I felt like I could keep them all straight,
which is a feat in and of itself. It really speaks to the strengths of the
writing that during the book I didn’t get confused or have to flip back to
remind myself who someone was.
The book is excellent, so well written and such a thorough
account of a relatively recent and heated topic in history. My only minor quip
is the framing, but it does pay off by the end of the work. I should check out Empire
of Pain next, I could read more of this writing style.
