A daughter of Jean McConville, abducted and murdered by the PIRA in 1972, has heavily criticised the producers of a major new drama charting the life and the aftermath of the death of the mother-of-ten.
Helen McKendry said she was made aware several weeks ago filming had started on an adaptation of best selling book by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Ms McKendry said: "I think they are just taking advantage of someone else's grief."
The ten-part series, currently being filmed in Sheffield and Liverpool, is planned to be broadcast on Disney Plus, possibly as early as next year.
Disney is keeping silent on the filming of the adaptation of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Ireland.
The producers told local media the series was set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles but that it was titled 'Beaumont' and would follow the lives of several characters in Belfast during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
The book details the life, death and legacy of 38-year-old Mrs McConville's murder, abducted by the PIRA from her Divis flats home in December 1972, shot and buried on the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth. She was one of the disappeared, her remains only recovered in 2003.
"I am not too happy. If you are supposed to be telling a story you have to tell the truth, not what you make up as you go along," said Ms McKendry.
"I don't think they should be profiting out of someone else's grief."
She also suggested there may be attempts to try and have filming on the drama series stopped. While Ms McKendry is critical, she added she would support the telling of her family story if "they tell it right".
Images from Liverpool show streets apparently in the aftermath of an explosion and gunmen on the streets. In Sheffield, filming took place in a boarded up, abandoned flats complex, possibly a stand in for Divis.
Following an optioning deal with Keefe, producers Color Force told the Hollywood Reporter: “We’re always on the lookout for a literary page-turner, and when we started Patrick’s book we couldn’t put it down. We’re very excited he’s partnering with us to tell this story on FX.”
The producers have officially released no details on the series, including around the filming or the cast. Disney would not comment.
But The Knowledge, a production industry publication, reported in March the series was in pre-production in the UK and set for lengthy filming in 2023.
