There was very little fanfare last year around the release of "Say Nothing," an FX miniseries based on Patrick Radden Keefe's book about the lives of Irish Republican Army (IRA) members during The Troubles. This is a piece of history that I know very little about, and I think having almost no preconceived notions about the politics of the conflicts helped me take the show at face value. "Say Nothing" is a complex, wonderfully human drama, and among the best things I watched in 2024.
The central characters are the Price sisters, who we follow in two different time periods. Dolours (Lola Petticrew in the '70s, Maxine Peake in the present) is the more daring one, and Marian (Hazel Doupe in the '70s, Helen Behan in the present) is loyal to a fault. They grow up as persecuted Catholics in Northern Ireland, become radicalized in their teens, and eventually join up with the IRA in the hopes of reunifying Ireland. Initially the girls are involved in bank robberies for funds, but then become part of bombing campaigns and hunger strikes in the 1970s. In parallel, we learn about other IRA members like Brendan Hughes (Anthony Boyle) and Gerry Adams (Josh Finan). Adams becomes a prominent Irish politician who is still alive at the time of writing, so every episode where he's depicted ends with a pointed disclaimer about him denying ever being part of the IRA.
"Say Nothing" is largely sympathetic to the Price sisters, showing their tumultuous backgrounds and family history of fierce resistance to British rule. However, crucially, it is not sympathetic to other members of the IRA or the aims of the organization as a whole. The first episode shows us the upsetting abduction of a woman named Jean McConville (Judith Roddy) from her home, in front of her children. Eventually we learn that Jean is one of the Disappeared, a victim of IRA groups who secretly abducted and murdered civilians they believed to be spies. Jean's disappearance becomes a big part of the show's final episodes, where Dolours struggles with whether to share the information she has. Her story is revealed to be one of embitterment and disillusionment, and much of the series is framed by interviews with IRA members trying to deal with and atone for their past actions.
The show's creators clearly play fast and loose with the truth, and they invent or greatly embellish some events, but the effectiveness of "Say Nothing" comes from the way these events are framed as the regrets of their aging, haunted participants. There are so many secrets being kept by all the characters that even if what is being depicted isn't true, the actual truth seems likely to be even worse. Every episode is packed with incidence, covering months or even years. One episode is devoted to the sisters' time in prison and their agonizing hunger strike, which drags out over six months. Another shows the entirety of the relationship that the girls have with another IRA member, the troubled Joe Lynskey (Adam Best). It never feels like a second is being wasted.
I recognized a couple of faces in the cast, like Maxine Peake, Roy Kinnear as a British police official, and Laura Donnelly playing one of Jean's daughters as an adult, but I like that I was totally unfamiliar with most of the actors, which helped the degree of immersion considerably. Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe are fantastic through and through as the Price sisters. It's so easy to become invested in their reckless career as revolutionaries, especially when their early capers involve things like dressing up as nuns to stick up a bank. The deeper and deeper they get into the morally troubling territory, with ever more terrible consequences, the more compelling the performances get. Eventually the POV shifts from the younger versions of the Price sisters to the older ones, but both versions are important in the narrative the whole way through.
The material gets pretty dark here, so I'll warn that this clearly isn't a show for everyone. If it sounds like something you would enjoy, however, "Say Nothing" has my strongest recommendations.
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