Book review: Population of Northern Ireland failed by politicians

Thomas Niedermayer was a German national, who as a teenager, survived the tragedies of the Second World War. In 1961 he moved to Belfast to manage the newly established Grundig factory. Niedermayer’s kidnapping and death in 1973 was a senseless act and ultimately it cost the lives of his entire family.

His story is central to an updated edition of Face Down: The Disappearance of Thomas Niedermayer by David Blake Knox, a sad commentary on the level of violence, that took place in the six counties since 1969, that people are only vaguely familiar with the kidnapping and murder of Thomas Niedermayer; and only then because of his unusual German name.

Thomas Niedermayer and his wife, Ingeborg, were born in Germany between the two world wars. Their teenage years were filled with the tragedy and violence that was the World War. Thomas was fortunate to escape conscription, because of his age.

Niedermayer went to work in the Grundig factory after the war. His diligence and hard work saw him rise quickly through the management ranks. 

When Grundig were coaxed into opening its first factory outside of Germany, in Dunmurry, Belfast in 1961. Niedermayer was the company’s choice as manager. Grundig soon became a major employer in the economy.

Through his work in Grundig, Niedermayer came across a factory shop-steward named Brian Keenan. Knox paints Keenan as one of the IRA’s most evil warlords. Keenan is accused of masterminding the kidnapping of Niedermayer.

The kidnapping took place in the days after Christmas of 1973. Niedermayer was taken from his Belfast home, bundled into a car, driven off and was never seen alive again. We now know that Niedermayer died within days of the kidnapping.

However, the IRA denied any knowledge of the crime and it was 1980 before the body was recovered. He had been buried, face down, under tons of rubbish at Colin Glen.

The years between the kidnapping and the discovery of Niedermayer’s body took a devastating toll on Ingeborg Niedermayer, and her daughters Gabriele and Renata. 

Knox uses their story to highlight the collateral damage experienced by thousands of other families who suffered senseless tragedies during the years of the Troubles.

After Thomas Niedermayer’s body was found, when all hope of seeing him alive again was gone, after years of silence from his killers, the cracks of despair began to appear in the Niedermayer family. 

Ingeborg, Gabriele, Renata, and Gabriele’s husband, Robin, could not come to terms with their traumatic experiences as one by one, they took the decision to join Thomas by taking their own lives.

The author, David Blake Knox, uses the Niedermayer story to vent his own frustrations with the awful period of the Troubles. In the early part of the book his background to the explosion of violence since 1969 is helpful to the reader because it sets the scene.

He does not have many good things to say about the IRA, or its leaders, or indeed its spin-off, the current Sinn Féin party. 

Strangely, amid all the criticism, Brian Keenan, the man behind the Niedermayer kidnapping, is given some credit for persuading the IRA to put down their weapons, and for lobbying various factions of that organisation to remain within the Sinn Féin camp when many violent splits seemed inevitable in the aftermath of the Good Friday negotiations.

Recent events, like the severe flooding in County Down, and the lack of a Northern Ireland assembly to co-ordinate a relief package, underline David Blake Knox’s assertion that all the political parties and para-military organisations, connected to the Northern Ireland troubles, have failed to create a modern society.

In doing so, they have not only failed Thomas Niedermayer and all the other victims of the troubles, but they have also failed, and continue to fail, the entire population of Northern Ireland.