Code of Silence

The title of this book comes from the IRA’s mantra that all its cadres are taught that when captured and questioned, they are to stonewall, to say nothing. It also is at the heart of one of the many stories within this book, of Jean McConville, supposed informer (or tout) and widowed mother of 10, who was ‘disappeared’ – i.e. abducted and killed in secret – because “The IRA imposes a code of silence akin to the concept of “omerta” in the mafia” (p342) and it is therefore “an offense punishable by death” (ibid) for IRA paramilitary members to reveal details of their deeds and hierarchies. Another key struggle highlighted in the book is the right to confidentiality that testimonies provided are promised with in advance of being given, which can be subsequently breached by court orders, which is also encapsulated by the title. It is of course also a title which flags up how much of IRA activity is shrouded in mystery and silence. 

This review is going to be short because for details of the characters and key legends of Northern Ireland’s struggles of the 1970s onwards, the book simply has to be read! The book is not, at the start, an easy read for those who know relatively little about these struggles, and cannot even unravel the cause of the long-held and deep-rooted enmity between the Protestants and Catholics. Derry, or Londonderry, is one of the main sites of protest, the city a

living monument to Protestant resistance. In 1696, Protestant forces loyal to William of Orange, the new king, had managed to hold the city against a siege by Catholic army loyal to James II

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which continues to be annually commemorated. Of course the issues must have moved on since then, and the two parties now feud for different reasons, but remain in those two factions.  

The book is very sensibly divided up chronologically into 3 parts. The first is of 1960s Northern Ireland, the struggles, the streets, the leading figures of the protests. The 2^nd part is when the IRA brought their bombing campaigns to England, and how the British state dealt with the jailed political prisoners, their hunger strikes, the concessions made or not made, the engagement of the Thatcher administration. The 3^rd book begins with the Good Friday 1998 agreement of ceasefire, detailing how Gerry Adams transformed the protest to a political movement and party, the backlash, the moving of Northern Ireland from The Troubles of the 20^th century, into the modern 21^st century, where Belfast may seem like any other cosmopolitan British city, and yet just beneath the surface, or even on the surface, are dischordant tensions, religious segregations,

Tribalisms and its trappings remained so potent in Belfast.

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Keefe is a good writer. If the reader will allow him to lead them, he will unfold a comprehensible (even for the uninitiated) and very complete and detailed account of that era in Northern Ireland’s politics, complex and multifaceted, even handedly and yet with passion and pace. He delivers a factual account while managing to make it a suspenseful, even thrilling narrative. He can communicate vast chunks of factual material to the reader with consummate ease, making it easy to grasp and engage with, despite its density of detail. It is extremely skilful writing, and a pleasure just to encounter. Even for those who have no vested interest in these politics, even for those who are not politically inclined, this is a surprisingly good read, full of human interest and intrigues, a beautifully depicted and seemingly faithful portrayal of a particular period and place and its unique politics and people. The Irish come across as a people who have long felt oppressed and may even have built their identity on the fact of their oppression, but who are tough, uncompromising, articulate, intelligent, resourceful, courageous, full of the passion of their convictions. Keefe’s account it not just descriptive, it is analytical and non-partisan, which must be a particularly difficult position to achieve.