The real-life Marian Price depicted in Emmy-Nominated series Say Nothing is suing Disney for defamation: Here’s what we know

Based on the nonfiction 2018 book by Patrick Radden Keefe, titled Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Say Nothing is a historical drama limited series created by Joshua Zetumer and aired on FX in November 2024.

Even though the show received positive reviews from critics and won a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination, it has courted controversy recently as Marian Price, the former Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer, who was depicted in the show by Hazel Doupe, is now suing Disney for defamation.

The series focuses on a group of people in Belfast and covers the period from the 1970s to the 1990s during the era of The Troubles and the involvement of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The show also revolves around the murder of Jean McConville, who was abducted from her apartment by Irish Republicans in 1972 and killed after being rumored to be an informant for the British Army.

McConville came to be known as one of the “Disappeared”, which refers to a group of people who were murdered by the Republican militants. In the book, author Keefe chronicles the efforts of McConville’s children, who try to find her remains and seek justice.

Keefe writes that Marian Price was the one who shot and killed McConville, and Say Nothing depicts this incident on the show, which led to Price, now known by her married name McGlinchey, suing Disney for defamation.

What we know about the defamation suit against Say Nothing and Disney by Marian Price so far

Marian Price filed her complaint on July 2, 2025, in a Dublin High Court, and singled out the show, Say Nothing, for its ninth and final episode, which erroneously portrayed her “as having carried out the execution-style murder” of a Belfast mother, in the show, by shooting her in the back of her head.

Even when Say Nothing premiered in 2024, Price had threatened to go forward with a lawsuit. An attorney from Price’s law firm stated at the time that,

“It is difficult to envisage a more egregious allegation than the one to which has been levelled against our client.”

Even when Keefe published his book, Price denied its allegations and claims.

Marian Price is calling for damages and an injunction preventing the defendants Disney and Minim UK Productions Limited from "further publishing the same or similar defamatory statements.” It also wants Disney to remove the sequence in the ninth episode of Say Nothing, where Price is carrying out the execution.

The impact of the show

The book and the show have reignited past sentiments in Northern Ireland, with some people praising the show, while others are critical of it. Sectarian divisions are still a debated matter in Northern Ireland, and the topic of the Disappeared still remains sensitive.

Both the book and the show also portray how the sisters, Marian and Dolours Price, got radicalized and became Provisional IRA volunteers. Interestingly, McConville’s remains were found on a beach in 2003, and an investigation concluded that she was not an informant for the British Army.

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Say Nothing is available on Disney+

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