How did Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee die? Details about Say Nothing subjects, explored

Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army whose deaths are explored in the recently released Hulu series Say Nothing. It is adapted from the 2018 book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Wright and McKee went missing in October 1972 and their bodies were found years later in 2015. It was uncovered in 2015 that the two men were shot dead by a faction of the IRA.

The synopsis of the show as per Hulu reads:

"Based on the gripping true story set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles that spans four decades, telling the story of various Irish Republican Army members, Say Nothing explores the extremes some people will go to in the name of their beliefs."

Created by Josh Zetumer, this nine-episode political thriller explores the Northern Ireland conflict, known as The Troubles, from the late 1960s to 1998. Produced by Disney+ and FX Studios, the mini-series premiered on Hulu on November 14, 2024.

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Who were Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, and how did they die?

Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were residents of Belfast, Ireland. Wright was a 25-year-old married man, whereas Kevin McKee was only 17 and newly engaged. They were both members of the "D Company" in west Belfast - one of the most dangerous divisions of the PIRA, headed by Brendan Hughes.

Brendan Hughes was a very prominent target of the opposition and a close confidant of Gerry Adams, a key strategist for the PIRA, although he has publicly denied any such association (as explicitly mentioned after each episode of Say Nothing). He allegedly formed a black-ops group called the "Unknowns" to weed out traitors and dissent within the PIRA through notoriously unjust means.

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Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were shot in the head by the Provisional Irish Republican Army

A still from the series (image via FX)

In 1972, the Unknowns suspected Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee of working for a branch of the British army called the Military Reaction Force (MRF). Hughes, under whose leadership they worked, offered both of them immunity in exchange for disclosing any involvement with the MRF, an order that they allegedly followed.

Despite cooperating, Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were ordered to be executed—not by Hughes. In October 1972, the PIRA (reportedly the Unknowns) kidnapped, interrogated, and killed them, burying them across the Belfast border, as per The Guardian.

At the time, no official record of their deaths existed. According to the BBC, Wright, McKee, and 15 others who disappeared during The Troubles are known as "The Disappeared."

To locate these missing people, the governments of the UK and Ireland formed the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) in 1999 through a treaty. In the same year, the IRA confessed to having murdered several of these victims, including Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee.

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The bodies of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were discovered four decades after their death

A poster of the series (image via FX)

In June 2015, 43 years after their disappearance, the bodies of Wright and McKee were recovered by the ICLVR from a single shallow grave in a bog in Coghalstown, County Meath, in Eastern Ireland. Post-mortem reports and DNA evidence confirmed the identity of the two men and declared the cause of death to be gunshot wounds in their heads.

The remains of the two men were returned to their families in 2015. Seamus Wright received a funeral in West Belfast while McKee was laid to rest in Lisburn, County Antrim’s Blaris cemetery, next to his mother.

Say Nothing, starring Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe, Anthony Boyle, Josh Finan, and Maxine Peake, explores the historical account in more detail and sheds light on all the prominent players of the conflict.

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All 9 episodes of Say Nothing are currently available for streaming on Hulu.