Credit: DisneyFor decades, The Walt Disney Company avoided anything political. But recently, the company dove head first into not only American politics but international ones as well.
Last year, Disney made the controversial decision to dive into Irish politics by turning the Patrick Radden Keefe bestseller Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland into an FX miniseries. The book/miniseries details the abduction and murder of widowed mother-of-ten Jean McConville.
The Irish Republican Army believed that McConville was passing IRA secrets to the British Army. Her body was secretly buried, and decades later, the IRA admitted to the killing.
In the series on Disney+, the production company had Marian Price murder, Jean McConville. However, despite the IRA taking responsibility for the murder and Price being a member of the IRA at the time, she has denied any involvement in McConville’s murder.
In an attempt to clear her name, Price has initiated legal proceedings against The Walt Disney Company.
Lawyers who represent Price said:
It is difficult to envisage a more egregious allegation than the one to which has been levelled against our client. Such allegations published on an international scale are not only unjustified, but they are odious insofar as they seek to cause our client immeasurable harm in exchange for greater streaming success. Our client has now been forced to initiate legal proceedings to hold Disney to account for their actions.
Marian Price and her sister, Dolours, joined the Irish Republican Army in 1971. In 1973, the pair participated in a car bombing outside the Old Baily Courthouse in Central London.
Marian was sentenced to two life sentences for her role in the bombing. She was released in 1980 after a prolonged hunger strike led to anorexia nervosa.
Dolours and Marian Price were alleged to have taken part in the abduction and murder of Jean McConville on December 1, 1972. McConville’s husband, Arthur, was a former British soldier who died of cancer earlier that year.
The IRA warned McConville to stop passing secrets to the British Army, but the IRA believed she continued to do so. On December 1, 1972, four women broke into McConville’s home and abducted her in front of her 10 children.
She was shot once in the back of the head on the outskirts of town. In a 2018 interview, Dolours Price admitted she took part in the murder. However, her sister never admitted involvement.
Jean McConville’s son, Michael, said of the portrayal of his mother’s death:
The portrayal of the execution and secret burial of my mother is horrendous and if you have lived through it, you will never understand just how cruel it is. It was another telling of my mother’s story and I and my family have to endure. I have not watched it nor do I intend on watching it.
Disney did not respond to Reuter’s request for comment on Price’s legal action.