Book Review Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.

I wish I had read this book before my visit to Belfast in 2016.  I would have seen the city and the events that took place here in a clear light.  This well researched non-fiction book truly opened my eyes to the thirty year “Troubles” in Northern Island and dives right to the heart of the bitter and deadly conflict that gripped the people of Northern Ireland for decades.

But this conflict goes back further.  Generations and generations of people on both sides have faced off.  In fact I have just finished reading Ken Follett’s Column of Fire, where the Catholics and the Protestants were killing each other in the 1500’s.  Well, from 1972 to the late 1990’s they continued to kill each other in Northern Ireland.

Although the Irish Republic Army (IRA) claimed to always be fighting for a unified Ireland and the exit of the British, in reality the horrific conflict comes down to faith and years of family indoctrination.

This is not an easy book to read. Both for its graphic nature but also for the minutia of detail laid out in the chronological telling.  Some readers might throw in the towel.  I stuck it out because I found the nature of what happened in Ireland interesting for it’s similarity to every other conflict around the world, both past and present.  Always at the core of every conflict is one group who believes they are better than another.  It comes always down to this.

I was taken by a quote I just read that I think applies to this topic – 

God made so many kinds of people. Why would he allow only one way to serve him?” – Martin Buber

I learned a lot from this book.  A story that needed to be told.  A story of a still unresolved issues.  A story of unsolved murders with known murderers still walking free.  A story with little justice or gratifying closure for thousands of people who lost loved ones, who lost property, who still today live in fear of retribution.  

You should read this story to understand what happened here.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five stars for Say Nothing

Read last weeks’s review of Love Thy Neighbor.

My current read – The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes.