Lies of Silence

Lies of Silence (1990), a literary thriller by Belfast-born author and screenwriter Brian Moore, follows Belfast hotel manager Michael Dillon as a crisis in his marriage is interrupted by IRA militants. Moore, who emigrated to Canada and later to the United States, is regarded as one of Northern Ireland’s major twentieth-century writers. Best known for The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955), Moore won the 1975 James Tait Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, in 1990 for Lies of Silence.

As the novel opens, Michael drives past a university graduation ceremony. He reflects that this time of year is a busy period at the hotel he manages (the fictional Clarence Hotel, located at the site of the real-life Wellington Park Hotel, Belfast). He thinks about his own graduation: he believed then that he was going to be a poet, a traveler, a teacher—not a hotel manager like his father.

Finally, his thoughts drift to the topic we sense he has been avoiding: his girlfriend, Andrea, who graduated from university herself not so long ago. Michael does not think of their relationship as an “affair,” because he is madly in love with Andrea and utterly disconnected from his wife, Moira. He knows that he married Moira for her looks. He has never found it easy to live with her, but in recent years, she has become unpredictable, bulimic, perhaps on the verge of a breakdown.



Andrea is a Canadian journalist, currently working for the BBC in Belfast. However, she is about to be relocated to London; it is crunch time for Michael. He has decided to tell Moira their marriage is over, so he can move to London with Andrea.

Michael is wracked with guilt, exacerbated by his (and Moira’s) Catholicism. Although he no longer practices the religion in which he was raised, he knows their families will be devastated by a divorce. Moira is still awake when he comes in. Michael finds he doesn’t have the courage for the conversation, so he tries to send Moira to bed. She knows something is wrong, but they go to sleep without Michael broaching the topic.

In the middle of the night, a gang of armed, masked men wakes them. The men are IRA “volunteers” and Michael and his wife are hostages. Once the initial shock and fear have worn off, Michael recognizes that the “volunteers” are teenage boys, fat and spotty and staring at his beautiful wife. During the course of the night, Michael accidentally catches a glimpse of one of the volunteers’ faces.



Michael knows that the IRA use ordinary citizens’ cars to plant bombs in the city. At first, he assumes that he is simply going to be held indoors while another volunteer drives his car to the intended target. Soon, however, he realizes that he is in a nervier situation still: the volunteers want Michael to drive his car, wired to explode, to the Clarence hotel and leave it there. The next day, a large gathering of militant Protestants is meeting at the Clarence, including a famous firebrand preacher (modeled on the Reverend Ian Paisley).

If Michael doesn’t do as he is asked—or if he does anything to prevent the bomb’s detonation—the volunteers will kill Moira.

Michael sets off the next morning, moving painstakingly through the military checkpoints. All the while, he is weighing his dilemma: if he lets the bomb explode, many innocent people will die. If he doesn’t Moira will die, and he will have to go into hiding.



Michael leaves his car at the appointed place. At the last moment, he makes his decision, and he calls the police to notify them about the bomb. The explosion is averted.

The volunteers have left Moira alive. She and Michael are placed under police protection together (the issue of Michael’s wanting to leave her still unaddressed). Michael decides not to tell the police that he saw one of their attackers’ faces, in the hope that he will escape retaliation.

Against the advice of the police, Moira goes public, describing their overnight ordeal on BBC News. In the process, she mentions that Michael saw one of the volunteers’ faces.



Now Michael is doubly certain his life is in danger; Moira’s insane carelessness gives him the push he needs to leave her. However, to be with Andrea, Michael must go to London, where he will be visible and vulnerable to IRA retaliation.

In London, Michael falls deeply in love with Andrea. The police pressure him to help them identify the volunteer whose face he saw, but he refuses. The tension slowly builds for Michael as he begins to see masked men around every corner. Then one day, they arrive.

Lies of Silence explores the impact of the Troubles on the psychological landscape of Northern Ireland and its inhabitants. The lies of the title are the ideologies of the militant factions in Northern Ireland—in which no one any longer believes, but which no one has the courage to resist—as well as the silences undermining Michael and Moira’s marriage.