This TV movie or mini series is inspired from a novel which I have read, and the movie is rather faithful to the book. Anyway, every tale related to IRA is always worth, gritty, violent, gloomy. Elliott Gould, who is not the main lead here, is nevertheless the most interesting character, because the evil one, as Tom Cruise in COLLATERAL, or Donald Sutherland in EYE OF THE NEEDLE. But if you watch closely there are several main characters, but no real lead. I will insist on Gould's role, very riveting, where I remember him in Robert Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE. I think there is something in common between those two performances; despite the fact that in 1971 he played a gumshoe and here a hired killer. But Gould is Gould. He appears a while after the opening scens and disappears before the end. Very strange but unusual.