Revealed: Why the family of IRA murder victim Jean McConville is hitting out at new Disney+ drama Say Nothing

The son-in-law of IRA murder victim Jean McConville has criticised the makers of Disney+'s new drama Say Nothing for failing to consult his family before the popular series aired last week.

The gripping adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe's best-selling book tells the story of Ms McConville, a mother-of-ten who was abducted in Belfast during the Troubles and never returned.

But Seamus McKendry, who supported his wife Helen's efforts as she campaigned for many years to find her mother's remains and penned a book about their ordeal in 2000, has lambasted the programme makers for 'not communicating' with them.

Speaking to the Irish newspaper Sunday World , Mr McKendry claimed: 'There was no communication with the programme-makers at all. They never once lifted the phone to ask us what is your opinion on this or that.

'There was a total lack of communication with Helen and myself... That's hurtful,' he added, before insisting that the abduction scene in the first episode was 'poorly portrayed' and 'should have shown the full horror of what happened'.

Ms McConville was dragged out of her home in December 1972 by hooded thugs in front of her terrified children, bundled into a van and never seen alive again.

Mr McKendry said his wife Helen, who is Ms McConville's eldest daughter and recently suffered a stroke, was determined to view the series in just one sitting.

As a result of their complaint, Mr McKendry's solicitor reportedly organised a video conference between the McKendry couple and a representative of those making the series.

Mr McKendry claims they were told a private screening would be organised for them ahead of the series being put on the streaming platform. However, he claims this never happened prior to Thursday's launch of the nine-part drama.

MailOnline has contacted Disney + and producers FX Productions.

Despite his grievances with the show's makers, Mr McKendry added, he is pleased that a show like Say Nothing was commissioned and made.

He hopes it will shine a light on the Disappeared - a group of 17 people believed to have been abducted, murdered, and secretly buried by the IRA during the Troubles.

According to The Irish News , four bodies have still not been recovered - including former Cistercian monk Joseph Lynskey, Columba McVeigh (who was 19 when he disappeared), Captain Robert Nairac of the Grenadier Guards, and 26-year-old Seamus Maguire.

Ms McConville's remains were ultimately found on Shelling Hill Beach in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland, on August 27, 2003 - nearly three decades after she was abducted. Police confirmed she had died from a gunshot wound to the head.

The widowed mother-of-10 was taken from her house in the republican enclave of the Divis flats on the Falls Road in Belfast on a cold night in December - but her children cannot remember the exact date she was ripped away from them.

Ms McConville was abducted on suspicions she was a British informant.

Her only 'crime' was trying to comfort a soldier by putting a pillow under his head, as he lay dying in a pool of blood outside her front door.

An investigation by the ombudsman for Northern Ireland has found no evidence that she was an informer, with her son Michael McConville demanding an apology over the baseless accusation that cost Ms McConville her life.

He told The Irish News : 'We as a family want an apology for all the accusations of our mother of having been an informer. I'll look for that apology until the day I die. These accusations cause more hurt to our family.'

In a 2014 interview, Michael - who witnessed his mother's harrowing abduction before being separated from his siblings - sensationally claimed he knew who Ms McConville's killer was.

Speaking after Gerry Adams' dramatic arrest, he claimed a 'household name' was among the gang that dragged his screaming mother out of their family home in 1972.

Michael added he remains fearful of naming her allegedly 'high-profile' killers.

In 2014, Mr Adams was arrested in connection with Ms McConville's disappearance and murder but was eventually released without charge. Northern Ireland's public prosecution service later stated there was insufficient evidence for any charges.

Ahead of the release of Say Nothing, Mr Adams' solicitors issued a statement denying his involvement 'in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA'.

Any claims to the contrary, they said, came from 'anti-peace process republicans', in other words political opponents.

They added: 'It is a matter of public record that Gerry Adams has worked closely with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains to identify the location of those buried by the IRA.'

There is also a disclaimer when every episode of Say Nothing ends: 'Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence.'

Keefe suggested these disclaimers are 'laughable' in an interview with The Sunday Times, ahead of the release of Say Nothing.

Of Adams, who refused to speak to him, the award-winning American journalist said: 'Part of what's so interesting about him is that he's hard to relate to, and clearly betrays his friends and lies. Yet politically Adams saw around the corner in a way that others could not.'

In his book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Keefe suggested he has uncovered the identity of Ms McConville's murderer.

According to Town & Country magazine , Keefe dedicates a large portion of the book to Boston College's Belfast Project - an oral history project about the Troubles.

IRA member Dolours Price, and one-half of the notorious Price sisters, was among those who participated in the project.

In her recording, she admitted driving Ms McConville on the night of her death, adding she was accompanied by another IRA member Pat McClure.

She said they were accompanied by a third person but Dolours consistently refused to name them, and the name was redacted from Dolours' oral history transcript.

Elsewhere in the document, Keefe reportedly learnt that the third person was asked by Mr Adams to be his personal driver - but they had turned the offer down.

His research ultimately led him to the conclusion that this third person was none other than Marian Price - Dolours' younger sister.

A lawyer for Marian 'vehemently' denied her involvement in Mrs McConville's killing, adding that she 'played no hand or part in her murder', in a statement to The Irish Times after Keefe's book was published.

In the climax to Say Nothing, Keefe has Dolours Price, who was divorced from the actor Stephen Rea, claiming that it was her sister Marian who fired the fatal shot on a remote beach in Co Louth. And that the order to kill was issued by Adams.

'The man running the unit, the one giving the orders,' she says. 'That would be Gerry Adams.'

Adams' lawyers, however, claim that the Boston tapes have been 'discredited'. Indeed, in 2019, Justice John O'Hara declared the tapes were inadmissible.

Three decades passed before a walker came across Mrs McConville's remains in 2003. A post mortem revealed that her skull had been pierced by a single shot.

Adams and Marian Price 'categorically denied' any involvement in the death.