Veteran republican Marian Price issues legal proceedings against Disney over ‘Say Nothing' series
Marian McGlinchey
is suing the streaming company
Disney+
for defamation over the series Say Nothing.
The drama, broadcast last year, depicted Ms McGlinchey, née Price, as being involved in the murder of Belfast mother-of-10
Jean McConville
– a claim her solicitors previously said was 'not based on a single iota of evidence'.
One of the North's Disappeared, Ms McConville was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the
IRA
in 1972. Her body was found at Shillington Beach, Co Louth, in 2003.
Belfast-based Phoenix Law, which represents Ms McGlinchey, said on Thursday that legal proceedings have been issued against Walt Disney and Minim Productions Limited following the 'egregious and defamatory allegations levelled at our client' in the series.
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'Both entities have failed to take steps to rectify their actions, causing continuing and untold damage and harm to our client,' Phoenix Law said.
Dolours Price and Marian Price in 1972. Photograph: PA Wire
'Our client has therefore been left with no alternative but to issue formal legal proceedings to establish the truth and to protect her reputation.'
Papers were filed at the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday.
Disney has been contacted for comment.
A former member of the Provisional IRA, Ms McGlinchey was jailed for her part in the bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973.
In 2014, she was given a suspended sentence after she admitted providing a mobile phone used to claim responsibility for the murder of two British soldiers by the dissident republican Real IRA.
Ms McGlinchey's solicitor, Victoria Haddock, said her client 'should not be placed in the position of having to take formal legal action to vindicate her reputation'.
'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,' she said.
'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.'
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'.
A file photograph of Jean McConville (left) with three of her children before she vanished in 1972. Photograph: PA.
'Spanning four decades, the series opens with the shocking disappearance of Jean McConville, a single mother of ten who was abducted from her home in 1972 and never seen alive again,' it said.
'Telling the story of various Irish Republican Army (IRA) members, Say Nothing explores the extremes some people will go to in the name of their beliefs, the way a deeply divided society can suddenly tip over into armed conflict, the long shadow of radical violence for all affected, and the emotional and psychological costs of a code of silence.'
Say Nothing is based on the 2018 book of the same name by
Patrick Radden Keefe
.
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