Who was Jean McConville and what happened to her? All about the real-life subject of Say Nothing 

Say Nothing, a newly arrived TV mini-series, will focus on the 1972 disappearance of Jean McConville. It is based on the book of the same name, penned by Patrick Radden Keefe, originally published in 2018. Jean McConville was a Belfast woman, originating from Northern Ireland. She was killed by the IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) in December 1972.

Say Nothing for Disney+, which will replay Jean McConville's disappearance. The show was created by Josh Zetumer and stars Lola Petticrew, Hazel Doupe, and Maxine Peake, among others. Season 1 of the show will have a total of nine episodes, which will all arrive on the platform on November 14, 2024.

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Jean McConville disappeared in 1972 from her residence

According to the BBC, Jean McConville was born in East Belfast on May 7, 1934, to a Protestant family. She later converted to Catholicism after marrying Arthur McConville, with whom she had 10 children. When her husband passed away from cancer in 1972, she was left to raise the ten children by herself. However, Jean was taken from her kids in 1972, and they witnessed her yelling as she was driven away in a van.

As per The Irish Times, the date of her abduction is still unclear, as while most of her children say she was abducted on December 7, 1972, a later police report pins the date as either November 30 or December 1, 1972. According to The Guardian, a group of four young women and eight men abducted her from her home at gunpoint, after which she was taken to an isolated place. She was shot in the back of her head and left dead, after which her deceased body was buried in Shelling Hill Beach, Cooley Peninsula. Her body was later found on August 27, 2003.

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Why was Jean McConville killed, and who killed her?

The IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) claimed that Jean McConville was a British informant. According to the BBC, while the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman later reported that this was false, there is speculation that the rumor of McConville being an informer came about after her neighbors witnessed her tending to a wounded British soldier shortly before she vanished.

The IRA denied any claims behind her disappearance initially. However, after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, finally, in 1999, the IRA admitted that they killed nine alleged informants in total, out of whom Jean was one.

The IRA claimed that Jean McConville was passing information about the republicans to the British army for financial benefits. The IRA also claimed that they had found a transmitter from McConville's residence, which they claimed proved that she was a British informant or a spy.

The IRA claimed that McConville was interrogated by the IRA previously, and that she had admitted that she was working for the British forces; however, she was allowed to go with a warning as she was a mother of ten. However, the IRA stated that when she resumed her work again, she was taken into custody again and killed.

However, when an official investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman was launched years later, the official report published in 2006 stated that there was no evidence or rumors that she was an informant or a spy.

In 2003, after Jean’s body was discovered, the IRA gave a formal apology to families of all the victims who were killed. Thus far, no one has been convicted for Jean’s murder. It is still disputed whether she was a British informant or perhaps an innocent woman who was misidentified as a spy.

To know more about her disappearance, watch Say Nothing on Disney+.

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All episodes of Say Nothing are now streaming on Disney+.