Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

by Patrick Radden Keefe

After the Irish War of Independence led to the partition of Ireland, in 1921, the island was split in two: in the South, twenty-six counties achieved a measure of independence as the Irish Free State, while in the North, a remaining six counties continued to be ruled by Great Britain.

“The basic fear of Protestants in Northern Ireland is that they will be outbred by Roman Catholics,”

Divis Flats was meant to be a vision of the future. Built between 1966 and 1972 as part of a “slum clearance” program, in which an ancient neighborhood of overcrowded nineteenth-century dwellings, known as the Pound Loney, was razed, the flats consisted of a series of twelve interconnected housing blocks, containing 850 units. Inspired by Le Corbusier,

For all the chaos, the number of people actually killed in the Troubles was initially quite low: in 1969, only nineteen people were killed, and in 1970, only twenty-nine. But in 1971, the violence accelerated, with nearly two hundred people killed. By 1972, the figure was nearly five hundred.