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sarakomo 's review for:
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe
2021: whew, what a ride, and what connections I have to this story!
I knew about The Belfast Project, having studied at Boston College from 2010 - 2014 (a prime time, as anyone who has read this book knows!) and then moving to Ireland for grad school from 2014 - 2015. The Irish studies department at BC is one of the most well known in the United States, and I went to visit Boston College Ireland on the edge of St. Stephen's Green. They were all talking about it, and how "BC had really screwed up".
This book goes into incredible depth on the events throughout The Troubles, as well the ones leading up to how the Belfast Project got to be so screwed up. I really should have read this book before going to see The Gaiety's production of Borstal Boy, which is a play adapted from Brendan Behan's autobiography. I also really should have read more about The Troubles before getting to Ireland to study, but I did absorb plenty while I was there.
One of the few criticisms that I could make of this book would be that in presenting the information in the order that Keefe chose, OBVIOUSLY the reader learns that the tapes and records were unsealed before the end of the story. Otherwise, how would Keefe have learned all of the information that he was currently in the process of telling us? I would also say the history presented is very narrow: the atrocities, often much worse than the ones described in this book, happen everyday around the world. It's horrible, and it's awful, but I thought that the entire conflict of The Troubles could have used a little more contextualization, especially with a nearly complete lack of introduction.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/secrets-from-belfast
If you're interested in learning more, this article goes a little more deeply into the BC side of things, as well as explaining more behind the mutual-legal-assistance treaty with Britain that forced the hand of Boston College to hand over the tapes. The article stops before Say Nothing does, and Keefe doesn't even get to finish the complete story, as some recent acquittals happened after the book was published (you can read more about that update here: https://www.bcheights.com/2019/10/28/belfast/)
+1 for Keefe using she/her pronouns when he didn't know the gender of someone. Really excited to get my hands on [b:Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty|43868109|Empire of Pain The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty|Patrick Radden Keefe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611952534l/43868109._SY75_.jpg|68254444] next!
I knew about The Belfast Project, having studied at Boston College from 2010 - 2014 (a prime time, as anyone who has read this book knows!) and then moving to Ireland for grad school from 2014 - 2015. The Irish studies department at BC is one of the most well known in the United States, and I went to visit Boston College Ireland on the edge of St. Stephen's Green. They were all talking about it, and how "BC had really screwed up".
This book goes into incredible depth on the events throughout The Troubles, as well the ones leading up to how the Belfast Project got to be so screwed up. I really should have read this book before going to see The Gaiety's production of Borstal Boy, which is a play adapted from Brendan Behan's autobiography. I also really should have read more about The Troubles before getting to Ireland to study, but I did absorb plenty while I was there.
One of the few criticisms that I could make of this book would be that in presenting the information in the order that Keefe chose, OBVIOUSLY the reader learns that the tapes and records were unsealed before the end of the story. Otherwise, how would Keefe have learned all of the information that he was currently in the process of telling us? I would also say the history presented is very narrow: the atrocities, often much worse than the ones described in this book, happen everyday around the world. It's horrible, and it's awful, but I thought that the entire conflict of The Troubles could have used a little more contextualization, especially with a nearly complete lack of introduction.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/secrets-from-belfast
If you're interested in learning more, this article goes a little more deeply into the BC side of things, as well as explaining more behind the mutual-legal-assistance treaty with Britain that forced the hand of Boston College to hand over the tapes. The article stops before Say Nothing does, and Keefe doesn't even get to finish the complete story, as some recent acquittals happened after the book was published (you can read more about that update here: https://www.bcheights.com/2019/10/28/belfast/)
+1 for Keefe using she/her pronouns when he didn't know the gender of someone. Really excited to get my hands on [b:Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty|43868109|Empire of Pain The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty|Patrick Radden Keefe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611952534l/43868109._SY75_.jpg|68254444] next!