#69 A STORY OF THE DISAPPEARED!
Pulitzer Prize winner, Cathal McNaughton grew up as a child alongside and witnessing the troubles of Northern Ireland. As an award winning photojournalist he decided to return years later to study the story of The Disappeared; victims of abduction during the 1970s at the hands of the republican paramilitary organisations.
Cathal has been photographing the parents and friends of those left behind in a moving set of pictures to highlight the questions those left behind have. Some of the victims have been found, some have not and as the years have passed those with knowledge of what happened and where The Disappeared are, are passing too,
Following my conversation with Cathal, I took a moment to study another story of the Disappeared that he mentions, but one that happened over seven thousand miles away.
1976, The National Reorganisation process, or The Dirty War begins in Argentina after General Rafael Videla seizes power in a military coup. From that year until 1983, the military dictatorship had a strong hold on a country and its citizens that had watched similar scenarios play out in neighbouring countries.
During dark days in Argentina’s history, the government would silence any detractors in Operation Condor, with what’s described as ‘extreme violence’. It’s believed up to 30,000 citizens suffered this ‘extreme violence;’ they were kidnapped, tortured and killed by a dictator led government and army. Anyone suspected of being a left wing activist or sympathiser for the previous government could be stopped by one of the special agencies and simply taken. This included many that were simply innocent too.
But in 1977, mothers of the Argentinian disappeared, decided to speak out in an act of courage and defiance. It’s a story that has certain parallels to that of Cathal McNaughton’s chilling photostory.
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Photograph copyright Cathal McNaughton, not to be reused without express permission by the photographer.
FURTHER REFERENCE
The story of The Disappeared from Cathal McNaughton
