7 Books to Read After Watching ‘Say Nothing’

Armed Struggle by Richard English follows Northern Irish history from the 1916 Easter Rising to the current and ongoing peace process. It is considered the first full history of the IRA.

Another key history book to understanding the Troubles is David McKittrick and David McVea’s aptly titled Making Sense of the Troubles. “After a chapter of background on the period from 1921 to 1963, it covers the ensuing period—the descent into violence, the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish accord, the bombers in England—to the present shaky peace process,” the publisher notes.

Radden Keefe also recommends fiction as a way of understanding this period, including this novel by Benedict Kiely. In Proxopera, violent men invade protagonist Granda Binchey’s home and force him to deliver a bomb while they hold his family hostage. Published in 1977, the book was one of the very first works of fiction to address the Troubles.

A newer entry on the list is Louise Kennedy’s novel Trespasses, which was published in 2022. The story follows a young Catholic woman named Cushla who falls for Michael, a Protestant lawyer who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members.

It’s also being adapted into a TV show, starring none other than Say Nothing‘s Lola Petticrew.

Rory Carroll’s There Will Be Fire is the story of how the IRA almost assassinated Margaret Thatcher in October 1984. The publisher notes the book is “journalistic nonfiction that reads like a thriller, propelled by a countdown to detonation.”

Originally published in 1999, Toby Harnden’s Bandit Country tells the story of South Armagh, the heartland of the Provisional IRA, a region which the British government called “Bandit Country.” It is an essential read on the Troubles.

And while Radden Keefe didn’t recommend his own book, if you haven’t read Say Nothing—the source material for the TV show—you absolutely should. It’s a remarkable work of narrative nonfiction, and not to be missed.