A major plot line in "Say Nothing" is the disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, in Belfast in 1972. FX Networks
Old Bailey bomber Marian Price has sued Disney over an allegation in its Say Nothing series that she shot dead Jean McConville.
The veteran Republican, also known as Marian McGlinchey, has previously denied firing the shots that killed the mother of ten more than 50 years ago.
Ms McGlinchey, a former member of the Provisional IRA, claimed through her lawyers that she had ‘no alternative’ but to sue The Walt Disney Company Ltd and Minim Productions Ltd.
Say Nothing, a nine-part Disney+ series, focused on the life of her late sister, Dolours Price. The pair were convicted for their part in the IRA car-bomb attack on London’s Old Bailey in 1973.
A plenary summons in Ms McGlinchey’s defamation case was filed at the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday, and yesterday her solicitors, Belfast-based Phoenix Law, confirmed that legal proceedings are under way.
It said these followed ‘the egregious and defamatory allegations levelled at our client in the Say Nothing series’.
The legal firm continued: ‘Both entities have failed to take steps to rectify their actions, causing continuing and untold damage and harm to our client.
‘Our client has therefore been left with no alternative but to issue formal legal proceedings to establish the truth and to protect her reputation.’
Solicitor Victoria Haddock stated: ‘Our client should not be placed in the position of having to take formal legal action to vindicate her reputation.
Marian Price in 2011. ROLLINGNEWS.IE
'Despite multiple opportunities to address the defamatory content of the Say Nothing series, Disney and Minim Productions have failed to take any step to do so.
'There is no justification for making abhorrent accusations under the guise of entertainment and we will be seeking to hold all responsible parties to account.’
Ms McConville was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972, after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces. Her body was found at Shelling Hill beach in Co. Louth, in 2003.
In 1999, the IRA acknowledged it had killed Ms McConville and eight others of the Disappeared. A report by the Police Ombudsman found no evidence that she had ever been an informer.
At the launch of the series last year, Disney described Say Nothing as ‘a gripping story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland during The Troubles’.
Say Nothing is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. In an interview last December, he said he was ‘completely certain’ Marian McGlinchey was the third member of an IRA team who killed Ms McConville.
At the time the book was published, Ms McGlinchey released a statement through solicitor Peter Corrigan, also of Phoenix Law. He said: ‘My client Marian Price vehemently denies any involvement in the murder of Jean McConville.'
No legal action followed the publication of the book.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.