Northern Spy

Content Warning: This section describes depictions of civil warfare, terrorism, and the aftermath of the Northern Ireland conflict (also known as the Troubles), which feature extensively in the novel.

Tessa is on a walk with her six-month-old son Finn and contemplates how the Troubles, while deemed over for the past 20 years, have yet to be fully resolved. The basic dispute has not found a solution: Catholic nationalists still want to unite with Ireland, while Protestants want to remain in the United Kingdom. She receives a call from her mother, who asks if she’s heard from her sister Marian, as she’s worried about an oncoming thunderstorm. Tessa confirms she has not.

Tessa travels to her workplace, the Broadcasting House for the BBC, and notes how Belfast is still under the IRA’s thumb. Their members coerce restaurant and shop owners to give them protection money, fault of which the IRA will ransack their place of business. She enters a meeting with other news editors and correspondents, and they discuss viable topics for their show. They review the case of Cillian Burke, a prominent IRA figure, and his trial, which they assume will fail to produce a conviction. Later, she and Nicholas go over his upcoming interview with Rebecca Main, a justice minister who, despite outwardly claiming the UK will never bend to terrorism, still displays her fears when she wears bulletproof vests on camera.