Disney Plus faces lawsuit over IRA murder depiction in Say Nothing

Spoilers for the Say Nothing book and television adaptation.

Marian Price, one of the real-life members of the Irish Republican Army depicted in the new FX/Hulu series Say Nothing, has filed a lawsuit over her portrayal in the show. Specifically, Price takes issue with the fact that she is shown as the shooter who murdered Jean McConville, one of the 17 Disappeared victims of the IRA. Price has filed her suit against Disney+, which hosts the series overseas. 

“The publication in question depicts our client, Marian Price, as the person to whom was responsible for murdering Ms Jean McConville. Given the context, it is difficult to envisage a more egregious allegation than the one to which has been levelled against our client. As someone who has been involved at every level of the related Boston College criminal proceedings, it is clear that the instant allegation is not based on a single iota of evidence,” her solicitor, Peter Corrigan, said in a statement (via The Guardian). “Such allegations published on an international scale are not only unjustified, but they are odious insofar as they seek to cause our client immeasurable harm in exchange for greater streaming success. Our client has now been forced to initiate legal proceedings to hold Disney to account for their actions.”

Marian Price, married name Marian McGlinchey, was a member of the Provisional IRA in the 1970s. She was convicted and jailed along with her sister Dolours Price for their involvement in the Old Bailey bombing in 1973. The sisters went on an infamous hunger strike for the right to be moved from English prison and incarcerated instead as political prisoners in Ireland. Price was eventually released when the anorexia she developed during the hunger strike threatened her life.

These events and more of the Price sisters’ lives are depicted in Say Nothing, woven together with the mystery of McConville’s disappearance. In the book, writer Patrick Radden Keefe makes clear that it is his personal theory that Marian was the shooter who ultimately killed Jean McConville based on evidence he collected, though her involvement was not confirmed by any firsthand sources (one anonymous confidant of Dolours Price told the author that Dolours had described the murder as “something that the sisters had done together”). The series, meanwhile, concludes with a scene showing Marian (played by Hazel Doupe) pulling the trigger, followed by a disclaimer that the real Marian “denies any involvement in the murder of Jean McConville.”

Michael McConville, one of the 10 children orphaned by Jean’s murder, called the series “cruel” and “horrendous” before it aired. “I have not watched it nor do I intend watching it. I have no interest in it. Disney is renowned for entertainment. My mother’s death is not ‘entertainment’ for me and my family,” he said in a statement (via The Irish Times). “Everyone knows the story of Jean McConville; even Hillary Clinton, who I met a few years ago, knew my mother’s story. And yet here is another telling of it that I and my family have to endure. Eventually this series will be forgotten and the people who made it will have moved on to something else. They can do that. I can’t.”