The actor who plays a young Gerry Adams in Disney Plus’ new series Say Nothing has said he approached playing the former Sinn Fein president without judgement as he admits he had an “inferior knowledge” of the Troubles ahead of filming.
English actor Josh Finan portrays Adams in the first part of the nine-part thriller series based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 non-fiction book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.
The series follows Dolours (Lola Petticrew) and Marian Price (Hazel Doupe) as it charts their life from civil rights marchers to IRA volunteers, all against the backdrop of the abduction and murder of west Belfast mother Jean McConnville.
Say Nothing has received critical acclaim and in an interview with the Big Issue, Finan, who is one of the only non-Northern Irish and Irish actors to feature in the series, said he deliberately didn’t approach his portrayal of Adams with judgement.
“It all comes back to that thing of don’t judge the person you’re playing, and you have to be alive on the day. I don’t know, and I think that is deliberate on my part”, he said.
“I looked at that, and I looked at what he went through, and I thought, ‘f*ck, he’s so young, and he’s had the living shit beaten out of him’. And then the next thing that happens is he gets let out and flown to London to negotiate with [then-Northern Ireland secretary] Willie Whitelaw,” Finan said.
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“And then you get back, and you go, ‘f*ck me, like, I’m unstoppable. I’m still alive. Every day’s a gift’. For that to happen at such a young age was something I was really fascinated by.”
Despite a disclaimer at the end of each episode, the series portrays Adams as a member and leader of the IRA. It also features an episode dedicated to his arrest – and later release without charge – by the PSNI on alleged involvement with the McConnville case.
The series also covers the disappearance of IRA victims Kevin McKee,, Seamus Wright, and Joe Lynskey.
In a statement supplied by his solicitors, Adams said he has consistently asserted his innocence in respect of the death of Ms McConville.
“Mr Adams had no involvement in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA,” the firm said in a letter to The Irish Times, and added his client had not seen the series.
“It is a matter of public record that Gerry Adams has worked closely with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains to identify the location of those buried by the IRA,” Mr Adams’s solicitors said.
“The commission has located the remains of 13 bodies of those buried by the IRA. There are still three missing. The work continues.”
Finan also said he learned about the Troubles in preparation for his role as Adams, which is taken over by Michael Coglan for later scenes .
“It’s conspicuous by its absence, the lack of schooling or learning we get about that time in history, which is so recent and so near that it does feel pretty shocking. Other than the things you pick up piecemeal through films, largely, or you see old newsreels or whatever,” he said.
“As soon as I picked up this book and many others, I realised how inferior my understanding of that time really was.”
News Catch Up: Monday 18th November