Veteran Irish militant to sue Disney over murder depiction in “Say Nothing” TV series
PHOTO CAPTION: A family member carries a picture of murdered Belfast mother Jean McConville, while other unidentified family members carry her coffin into a family house in the small County Antrim village of Crumlin, Northern Ireland, October 30, 2003. . REUTERS/Paul McErlane PM/AA
BELFAST (Reuters) - Veteran Irish militant Marian Price has initiated legal proceedings against Walt Disney after she was depicted killing Jean McConville in 1972 in the hit U.S. streaming series "Say Nothing."
The shooting dead of McConville, the mother of 10 children who was seized from her home by the Irish Republican Army, was one of the most controversial of over 3,000 killings in three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
"Say Nothing", based on the 2018 book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, has been streaming on Hulu, and Disney+ outside the United States since last month.
Lawyers for Price on Wednesday said they issued pre-action correspondence against Disney.
"It is difficult to envisage a more egregious allegation than the one to which has been levelled against our client," said Peter Corrigan, a solicitor for Price, in a statement.
"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," he said.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Price came to prominence with her sister Dolours after they were convicted of carrying out a 1973 IRA bombing campaign in London during which they targeted the Old Bailey courts with a bomb that injured over 200 people.
Marian served time in prison for the bombing.
The series depicts Price as the person responsible for killing McConville, who was abducted in 1972 in front of her 10 children.
One of McConville's children, Michael, has objected to her death being used as "entertainment".
(Writing by Amanda Ferguson; Editing by Conor Humphries and Bill Berkrot)
