The son of Jean McConville has criticised Disney+ for making a series about her disappearance in December 1972, saying her murder should not be used for “entertainment”.
Ms McConville, a widow with 10 children, was abducted by the Provisional IRA and murdered.
The IRA alleged that she had been an informer for the British army while living at her home in Divis Flats in republican west Belfast. Her family has always denied the allegation.
Her body was recovered from Shelling Hill Beach, also knows as Templetown Beach, near Dundalk, Co Louth, on August 27th, 2003.
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Say Nothing is a nine-part TV series based on American author Patrick Raddan Keeffe’s bestselling book of the same name which was published in 2018. It is now airing on Disney+ worldwide.
Jean McConville’s disappearance happened in the same year that her husband Arthur died of cancer at the age of just 49. Her death left their children as orphans and some of them were taken into care.
Michael McConville says he has not watched the series and does not intend to watch it.
“I have no interest in it. Disney is renowned for entertainment,” he said in a statement issued through the charity Wave which helps victims of the Troubles.
“My mother’s death is not ‘entertainment’ for me and my family. This is our reality, every day for 52 years.
“And although we live with it every single day and it never goes away, the timing of this is particularly bad given that it is my mother’s anniversary on December 1st.
“I just don’t think people realise how hurtful this is. The portrayal of the execution and secret burial of my mother is horrendous and unless you have lived through it, you will never understand just how cruel it is.
“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.”
The series also covers the disappearance of IRA victims Kevin McKee (17), Seamus Wright (25), and Joe Lynskey (40), also abducted in Belfast in 1972 and buried in secret locations. The body of Mr Lynskey has not yet been found
Say Nothing features those named in the book as being allegedly involved in her disappearance and murder including the Price sisters, Delours and Marian; Brendan “The Dark” Hughes; and Gerry Adams.
Both Hughes and Dolours Price gave interviews before they died linking Mr Adams to an IRA unit associated with the killings, as did former Belfast IRA veteran Ivor Bell, in an interview with the Boston College oral history project.
Mr Adams was arrested in 2014 by the PSNI and questioned in relation to her murder but was released after four days without charge.
At the end of each episode, the Disney+ series carries a disclaimer saying “Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence”.
Asked to comment about the series, Mr Adams, through his solicitors, said he has consistently asserted his innocence in respect of the death of Ms McConville.
“Mr Adams had no involvement in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA,” the firm said in a letter to The Irish Times.
Their client had not seen the drama, “but according to media reports it is based primarily on interviews in the discredited Boston College Tapes from several anti-peace process republicans”.
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