Loyalist counter-protesters violently ambush student marchers at Burntollet Bridge, pushing Dolours Price toward armed republicanism.

The McConville family is displaced by sectarian violence and resettles in the bleak Divis Flats housing complex in Belfast.

Arthur McConville dies of lung cancer, leaving Jean a widowed mother of ten children in a war-torn city.

British paratroopers shoot and kill over a dozen peaceful protesters at a republican march on Bloody Sunday.

Jean McConville comforts a dying British soldier in her housing complex, prompting neighbors to paint 'BRIT LOVER' on her door.

Armed and masked IRA members storm the McConville flat and abduct Jean in front of her terrified children.

A stranger delivers Jean McConville's rings and handbag to her children, signaling to Michael that she will never return.

The Price sisters and other IRA volunteers detonate car bombs in London, injuring hundreds of bystanders before being arrested.

A British court convicts the London bombers and sentences Dolours and Marian Price to twenty years in prison.

After a 206-day hunger strike, British officials relocate the Price sisters to Northern Ireland to serve their sentences as political prisoners.

Bobby Sands and nine fellow Long Kesh hunger strikers die in succession, dramatically boosting republican political support.

British and Irish leaders sign the Good Friday Agreement, ending the Troubles and establishing a devolved Northern Irish assembly.

A civilian named John Garland accidentally discovers Jean McConville's skeletal remains buried on a beach in the Republic of Ireland.

The PSNI arrests Gerry Adams in connection with the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, decades after her death.

Keefe concludes that Marian Price likely fired the fatal shot that killed Jean McConville, though the theory remains officially unproven.

The main plot follows escalating sectarian violence in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s through the peace process. Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, becomes the human center of the story when she is abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972, her children left to receive only cryptic confirmation that she is gone forever. In England, the Price sisters carry out a dramatic bombing operation, are convicted, and wage a months-long hunger strike from prison. The prolonged deaths of hunger strikers at Long Kesh galvanize republican politics and contribute to the negotiations that produce the Good Friday Agreement. Decades later, Jean McConville's remains are found on a beach, Gerry Adams is briefly arrested for her murder, and the case collapses without a conviction. Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe offers his own unverified conclusion about who fired the fatal shot, leaving the McConville family still waiting for definitive answers.

The headline events of the Troubles and Jean McConville's murder.

The Provisional IRA breaks away from the Official IRA, creating a new paramilitary faction committed to armed street resistance.

Dolours and Marian Price join the Provisional IRA as full members, embracing armed revolution alongside their college studies.

Gerry Adams is arrested and imprisoned, then temporarily released to attend ceasefire negotiations with British officials in London.

The IRA's Bloody Friday bombing raid kills nine people and wounds 130 across targeted locations throughout Belfast.

Dolours Price drives her friend Joe Lynskey to his IRA court martial and execution after he is condemned as a traitor.

The BBC visits the McConville children at their flat and interviews them about their missing mother.

Social services intervene and relocate the McConville children into state orphanages and residential care facilities.

Brendan Hughes escapes Long Kesh prison by hiding inside a rolled mattress being carried out with the outgoing trash.

Hughes returns to Belfast disguised as a middle-class toy salesman and secretly wiretaps the British Army's headquarters.

Police re-arrest Brendan Hughes while he is operating under his false identity and offer him money to become an informant, which he refuses.

Dolours Price is released from prison after authorities determine she is close to death from anorexia.

Dolours Price marries actor Stephen Rea and begins canvassing for Sinn Féin, embracing Adams's political strategy.

A loyalist paramilitary soldier throws grenades into a crowd of mourners at a triple IRA funeral, killing three and wounding dozens.

The IRA announces a ceasefire, leaving many former paramilitary volunteers confused and disillusioned about the sacrifices they had made.

Families of the Disappeared publicly pressure Sinn Féin to provide information about the fates of their missing loved ones.

This pool covers the significant but often overlooked events that shaped the Troubles from within the IRA's ranks and the lives of civilians caught in the crossfire. The formation of the Provisional IRA drew in committed young republicans like Dolours and Marian Price, who balanced college studies with covert paramilitary missions alongside leaders like Gerry Adams. Tactical operations—including the Bloody Friday bombings, the court martial of a Provo traitor, and Brendan Hughes's dramatic prison escape and undercover return—illustrate the day-to-day machinery of paramilitary life. Meanwhile, the McConville children endured the loss of their mother by being dispersed into state care, first visited by BBC cameras and then removed by social services. As the conflict wore on, prominent IRA figures adapted to civilian life while the movement pivoted toward politics, culminating in a ceasefire that left many hardened veterans feeling confused and abandoned. Families of the Disappeared eventually broke their silence and publicly demanded that Sinn Féin help locate their missing loved ones.

The hidden operations, prison struggles, and civilian consequences of the conflict.

The Battle of the Bogside erupts in Derry, triggering widespread sectarian violence that displaces thousands of Belfast families including the McConvilles.

Britain asserts direct rule over Northern Ireland, escalating tensions between the British state and republican paramilitary forces.

The IRA captures Jean McConville, questions and beats her, then releases her just before returning to abduct her permanently.

Brendan Hughes discovers that two fellow Provos, Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, have been captured and turned into British informants.

Hughes orchestrates simultaneous attacks on three British intelligence-gathering operations, dismantling a major surveillance apparatus within a single hour.

Dolours Price drives the recaptured double agents Wright and McKee to their IRA court martial and execution in the Republic.

Adams and Hughes are captured together at an IRA call house in Belfast, beaten unconscious, and imprisoned at Long Kesh.

Adams concludes in prison that the IRA must pursue a dual strategy of armed resistance and political participation through Sinn Féin.

Gerry Adams wins election to the British Parliament as head of Sinn Féin, completing his transformation from military commander to politician.

Officials excavate a specified beach on the Cooley Peninsula searching for Jean McConville's remains but find nothing and abandon the search.

Boston College historians launch the secret Belfast Project oral history archive, recording former paramilitary combatants under contracts of confidentiality.

Brendan Hughes tells Belfast Project interviewer Anthony McIntyre that Gerry Adams personally ordered Jean McConville's disappearance and execution.

An Irish tabloid publishes details linking Dolours Price to McConville's murder and references the existence of secret interview tapes.

Dolours Price dies from a toxic mixture of prescription drugs before she can face any prosecution for her role in McConville's death.

The criminal case against former IRA leader Ivor Bell collapses when the court dismisses him due to his deteriorating mental health.

This pool focuses on the pivotal decisions and revelations that determined the course of the Troubles and its troubled aftermath. Early violence in Derry and Belfast hardened republican resolve and set the conditions for IRA radicalization, while British direct rule deepened the conflict. In Belfast, Brendan Hughes orchestrated crucial intelligence coups and Gerry Adams quietly shifted from military command to political strategy, a transformation that would later enrage his former comrades. After the Troubles ended, the secret Belfast Project oral history archive became the unexpected key to unlocking the truth about Jean McConville's murder, as Hughes's recorded confession implicated Adams in ordering her disappearance. Failed investigations and a collapsed court case left the McConville family without justice, while Dolours Price died before she could be prosecuted. Keefe's own unconfirmed theory about Marian Price offers the book's closest approximation of the truth, illustrating how deeply the culture of silence continues to obstruct accountability.

The key decisions, discoveries, and betrayals that shaped the conflict's unresolved legacy.