Say Nothing

In his poem "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing" Seamus Heaney writes, “Northern reticence, the tight gag of place/And times”. What picture of Belfast does Radden Keefe give in "Say Nothing"?

"Say Nothing" could be described as the story of two women: Jean McConville and Dolours Price. What understanding do you take away from Keefe’s telling of their lives within this conflict?

Radden Keefe is bringing together stories based on history, but also memory in his interviews, where events unfurl in sometimes contradictory ways. How did you find reading history from the perspective of memories?

In Roddy Doyle’s New York Times Book Review, he writes that "Say Nothing" ‘can be read as a detective story’. What makes Radden Keefe’s storytelling so gripping?

How important are oral histories in the logging of the past? What do you understand about the work and the controversy around the Belfast Project after reading "Say Nothing"?

‘Who should be held accountable for a shared history of violence?’ How do the people in this book, and you as the reader, answer this question? Can it be answered?

In an interview in Hazlitt, Radden Keefe said, ‘I may have this Irish name, but I was clearly an outsider.’ How do you think an ‘outsider’ status affected his research, and the final narrative?

‘Outrage is conditioned not by the nature of the atrocity but by the affiliation of the victim and the perpetrator.’ Where did your outrage fall when you read "Say Nothing"?

‘Before the killing, they summoned a priest.’ There is ritual – at times an everyday domesticity – to the violence reported in "Say Nothing", from phone calls and knocks on the door to car rides. How do you react to this ‘everyday’ violence?

In what way has reading "Say Nothing" increased your understanding of Northern Ireland’s struggle?