Say Nothing
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Dolours seems eager to restart her life and leave the past behind.
I did things, and I dont even know what I think about them, she cries.
One thing Dolours knows for sure is that she is done being an active member of the IRA.
The agreement effectively ended the war and restored peace to Northern Ireland.
Silence used to be an imperative of the IRAs code of ethics; now its just kosher.
Laura Donnelly is phenomenal as the older Helen, who is moved by a hardened, ancient wrath.
We all know what that call means.
Gerry knows that for a lot of ex-paramilitaries, his willingness to negotiate is tantamount to treason.
Gerrys new commitment to peace is more than Helen can bear, and she resolves to go public.
On television, she addresses Gerry directly and doesnt relent when he visits her home.
She wants him to contend with the force of her trauma, the depth of her experience.
But Gerry has become a bona fide politician.
Does Gerry really mean to imply that he didnt give out orders?
That he didnt help plan and execute the London job?
But for what you accomplished, I wouldnt trade a good breakfast.
Here was the man who architected [her] trauma, pretending he had nothing to do with it.
While Dolours publicizes her rage, Marian recommits to the idea that talking gets us nowhere.
She goes back to the armed struggle for the first time without her sister.
Gerrys public denial of his IRA past, in other words, makes Dolours feel crazy.
She finds solace in Brendan, who feels the same anger.
Not one death was worth it, he tells her when she goes to visit him at Divis Flats.
All those deaths are on us, Brendan laments.
Speaking with Mackers, for Brendan, was a way to relieve some of that burden.
Its like going to confession, he says to Dolours, except you might drink.
Shed even gone so far as calling (and quickly hanging up on) Helen.
These are some of the most moving moments of the show.
Ironically, its a living dog who sniffs out Jeans remains, buried on the beach.
They can tell its her because her signature blue nappy pin was still secured on her lapel.
The tapes first begin having an impact after Brendan dies from a heart attack.
The next day, hung-over but still determined, she tells everything.
To corroborate Dolourss story, all the reporter has to do is cross-reference it against Brendans Belfast Project tape.
Marian is ballistic once she learns what her sister has done.
you oughta get sober, she scolds.
Gerry doesnt seem as worried about Dolourss interview as he is about the Belfast Project in general.
To theIrish News, Dolours discloses that Jean was believed to be a British informant.
With both Brendans and Dolourss tapes unclassified, Gerry gets arrested.
It makes you want to pull your hair out.
Nothing could shatter their bond.
At Dolourss wake, Mackers reassures Marian that Dolours would never have implicated her sister on the record.
But then Dolours got a call: The men couldnt go through with the execution.
Dolours missed on purpose; Marian shot the lethal bullet.
you might call me a difficult woman, Dolours said, but I couldnt live with the silence.
Similarly, I would have welcomed a deeper examination of Dolourss renouncement of the armed struggle after Armagh.
She had been, after all, ready to die for the cause.
