Written By Devan Bugbee
Jean Murray was born and raised in East Belfast as a protestant, to a shipbuilder and his wife. In 1952, she married Arthur McConville, a Catholic, something often associated with the Republic. The McConville’s decided they would make their home in Jean’s home residence, and it was there that they had ten surviving kids. Jean was short, standing at five foot two, and her pregnancy left her with a hysterectomy and recurring thrombosis. Being Catholic was tabooed in such a protestant neighborhood which led to harassment, so they moved into the boundaries of West Belfast, a more catholic side of Northern Ireland, where grief was going to be an unknown companion (Maum). Despite the move, the life of the McConvilles continued to face harassment, and the story of Jean highlights how badly tensions were between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
The few years she spent in West Belfast was a nightmare. Despite being married to a Catholic, the neighborhood questioned Jean’s worthiness since she was raised in a protestant household. It got so intense that Jean attempted suicide three times and spent months in a mental hospital, and on top of that, Jean aiding a British Soldier led to her neighbors killing her dog (Maum). This was not long after Mr. McConville, a former soldier in the British Military, died of cancer in 1971 (BBC, Jean McConville). Jean, unable to obtain sympathy from her neighbors, soon would be death’s next victim with the Irish Insurgency becoming skeptical of if her loyalty was with Ireland or the protestants, which meant Unionists to them.
In November of the following year, McConville was taken from a bingo game and beaten. After supposedly admitting that she had been spying for the British Government, they let her go (Maum). When Jean was kidnapped is not necessarily certain; most of her kids said the date was December 7 (BBC, Jean McConville), while one daughter claims it was the very next day (Day). Nonetheless, eight men and four women showed up at the McConville residence, picked Jean up, threw her in a van, and left (Day). It is speculated that from here, Jean has moved between different houses, but it is definite that she was shot, and buried at Shelling Hill Beach (BBC, Jean McConville).
It is not exactly known why Jean was targeted. It was especially odd since before her husband died, she picked up his religion (BBC, Jean McConville), and most feuds are often between the Protestants and the Catholics. This shows a hatred drawn in not just religion, but also in culture. It seems that no matter what Jean did, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t that she changed her theology. It wasn’t enough that she married a Catholic, showing she did not put these prejudices with other religions. And it wasn’t enough that she abandoned her friends and family back at home just to escape their persecution, showing devotion to her faith. It did not help that Jean refused to hide away her family arms (Maum). In the eyes of the Irish insurgency, if you are not completely devoted to a unified Ireland, you’re one of the bad guys. And the opposite goes for East Belfast, that if you’re not a protestant, then you’re allegiance is not with Ireland, but with the pope, which is why the people Jean grew up around bullied her into leaving.
There are other theories as to why Jean was specifically targeted while there were many other protestants in her neighborhood the IRA could have kidnapped. For example, Jean’s husband was a soldier in the British Army like his father before him. This led the IRA to believe that she was possibly an informant, but investigators searched and found nothing (RTE). It’s also a possibility that Jean was simply mistaken for someone else (Maum). Many also speculate that fight over furniture with a Catholic neighbor contributed to the IRA targeting her (Maum). There was also gossip of Jean’s possibly being involved with an injured soldier. Most said she was only taking care of him (BBC, Jean McConville), others went as far to say that she was pursuing romantic interests, and was going to abandon her family for him (The Guardian). No matter the case, none of these rumors are substantially backed up, and they most likely came about simply because nobody wanted to stand up for a “protestant”.
Works Cited
BBC. “Jean McConville: “The Disappeared Mother-of-10”. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27234413. Accessed November 24, 2020
Day, Elizabeth. “Jean McConvilles’ Daughter: ‘If I give Up Fighting, They’ve Won”. The Gaudian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/06/jean-mcconvilles-daughter-give-up-fighting-helen-mckendry-ira. Accessed November 25, 2020Maum, Patrick. “Dictionary of Irish Biography: McConville, Jean”. Royal Irish Academy. https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do;jsessionid=9A88FA1012419901F995AB03D494D852?articleId=a5613&searchClicked=clicked&readsearch=yes. Accessed November 22, 2020
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