Say Nothing, created by Joshua Zetumer, presents a fictionalized narrative inspired by the real-life events that took place in Ireland during the time period that was referred to as the Troubles. The IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) waged a war against the British regime, and it felt like every other civilian joined the cause and contributed in whatever manner they could. The series makes us privy to the stories of many real-life people who played a key role in the freedom struggle at that point in time. So, without further ado, let’s explore everything that took place in Say Nothing’s ending and where these key characters end up.
Spoiler Alert
How did Dolours and Mars get arrested in London?
Dolours and Marian Price wanted to make a contribution in a more significant manner compared to what the women in the “Cumman na mBan” did. They didn’t just want to serve tea or prepare food. They wanted to be on the frontlines fighting for the cause of their nation. Both of them, over a period of time, proved their worth. They showed their male counterparts, especially the likes of Gerry Adams and Brendan Hughes, what they were capable of doing. Gerry started involving them in almost every other mission, especially the ones that were quite sensitive in nature. It was the idea of the Price sisters to bomb London and shake the foundation of the oppressive British Regime. The sisters left for London with a number of people, and they wanted to set an example for the members of their own organization and also show the rest of the world that the IRA was capable of carrying out a “clean mission,” if I might term it that way.
Now, a lot of IRAs operated in a manner, which made them look like a guerilla force. Something or the other went wrong, and the mission always ended up getting botched up. There were a few people in Dolours’ gang in whom she didn’t have an ounce of trust. She knew that at the first sign of trouble, these people would betray their team members to save themselves. Also, there were a lot of undisciplined people on the team who didn’t understand the sensitivity of the matter.
We saw in Say Nothing, how one team member ended up getting sloshed just the night before the bombs were to be planted. Dolours and her team planted the bombs at four different locations, but before they could leave for Ireland, they were caught at the airport by the law enforcement authorities. The local police were able to diffuse two bombs, but the bomb squad wasn’t able to reach the other two sites where the bombs were planted on time. A lot of civilians lost their lives, and Dolours and Mars were arrested and put behind bars. Dolours and Mars decided to go on a hunger strike because they wanted to be treated as political prisoners and not merely as terrorists. The authorities tortured them day and night, and they made sure that the Price Sisters were forcefully fed. The British government neither wanted them to be seen as martyrs in case they lost their lives while being in prison, nor did they want to give in to their demands. Ultimately, the Price sisters were extradited back to Ireland, but the entire experience—the kind of pain they had endured, the kind of helplessness they felt in those moments—changed them as human beings. They had achieved cult status among the members of the IRA, but still, they felt that they had gone through all that pain for nothing because of many developments that had happened in their absence. While they were locked up, Gerry Adams, who had become the president of Sinn Fein, had decided to contest the elections, and somewhere, his actions made people like Dolours and Brendan feel invalidated.
Why did Brendan decide to be a part of the Belfast Project?
Brendan, in one of the scenes in Say Nothing, very aptly described how he felt after Gerry joined politics and publicly spoke about not having any kind of association with the IRA. Brendan asked Dolours to imagine that a boat was stuck in the sand, and the captain asked the other crew members to get down and push it into the water. Then, as soon as the boat was pushed inside the water, the captain took off, leaving the entire crew behind. That scene struck a chord with me as a viewer, too, because of how beautifully he described his conflict and the rationale behind his hating Gerry. Now, Brendan and Gerry met after the latter became the president of the Sinn Fein party. I don’t think Gerry was wrong on his part, because any prudent man would have refrained from speaking about their ties to an organization like the IRA on national television. One man’s revolutionary is another man’s terrorist, and Gerry, for very obvious reasons, didn’t want to cross that line and put his life in jeopardy.
Brendan told Gerry that he was becoming soft and that he didn’t approve of his ways and means. The final nail in the coffin came when Gerry went and negotiated a deal with the British regime. Now, the core members of the IRA did not like the terms and conditions that were forced on their organization. It was decided that the British regime would think about cutting back its military presence in Northern Ireland, but they wanted the IRA to be decommissioned with immediate effect. The likes of Dolours and Brendan saw it as a surrender, and why wouldn’t they? They had fought for their nation; they had seen their loved ones dying in front of their eyes; they had been tortured and gone through so much, and in the end, it felt like it was all for nothing. Brendan had a lot of frustration inside him, and he desperately wanted to talk to somebody; he wanted to shout at the top of his lungs and tell the world that Gerry was one of the main members of the IRA, and he was the one who commissioned the most lethal missions that the organization had been involved in. Around that time, Brendan met a man named Anthony McIntyre, who was documenting the history of the IRA as a part of his university project (The Belfast Project). It was a safe space to talk, as Anthony McIntyre had assured Brendan that the tape recordings wouldn’t be made public so long as he was alive. It was Brendan who introduced Dolours to Anthony McIntyre, and she, too, revealed to him every little detail of the jobs she did while she was a part of the IRA. Brendan didn’t become a part of the Belfast project for the sake of justice; he did so for his own sanity. He wanted to blurt everything out, and by doing so, he felt at peace.
What did Dolours tell The Irish News?
Dolours grew impatient with time, and she wanted Gerry to pay for his actions. She had revealed her secrets to Anthony McIntyre, and she knew that if she passed away, the truth would come out in the open. But she didn’t want Gerry to get away with what he had done. She wanted immediate retribution. So she gave a call to Allison Morris from the Irish News, and she told her that Gerry was the one who gave the orders to carry out each and every mission that she was involved in back in the day. Dolours told her that it was on Gerry’s orders Jean McConville had been killed. Jean’s daughter Helen had long been fighting a lone battle as she wanted answers. She wanted the government to hold the perpetrators who had killed her mother responsible. Jean’s remains were accidentally found by a civilian, and the matter came to light once again. After what Dolours told the Irish News, in addition to her testimony in the Belfast project, Gerry was taken into custody and questioned by the authorities. But devoid of any solid evidence, the authorities couldn’t charge him with any crime. Gerry was a smart man, and he made sure that he covered his tracks and didn’t leave any evidence that could link him to the IRA. Dolours always maintained the fact that there were four guys who took Jean with them, and then after that she didn’t know what happened to her.
In Say Nothing’s ending, Dolours finally revealed the truth and told the authorities that it was her and her sister, Marian, who had killed Jean, as the four guys who were supposed to do the job backed out at the very last moment. It wouldn’t be wrong today to say that Dolours and Brendan both were suffering from PTSD. They had been through a lot in their lives, but the fact that all their efforts had gone in vain accentuated that feeling of disappointment and grief even more.
How Did Dolours And Brendan Die?
Dolours, as we saw in the series, became an alcoholic, and she died of a drug overdose. Brendan died of natural causes in the Belfast City Hospital in the year 2008. Probably Dolours and Brendan, too, should have adapted to the changing times, but they weren’t able to. So, in the end, a few people, like Gerry, from being called terrorists, ended up making a career in politics; a few lost their lives in an attempt to free Ireland; a few unfortunate ones disappeared, leaving their family members to grieve forever; and a few, like Dolours and Brendan, lived long enough to see people and their allegiances change.
