The 'Six Irishmen,' mentioned by Sir Robert Neil of MI5 (with politician Alec Nevin) to Kerrigan is in reference to the 'Birmingham Six.' In 1974 the pub Tavern In The Town and Mulberry Bush, in Birmingham England, was bombed, killing 21 persons and injuring 182 people. The police picked up the nearest six Irishmen and subjected them to 'in-depth interrogation' to obtain false confessions. Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power, John Walker and Hugh Callaghan all served 16 horrific years in jail until the convictions were overturned in 1991. Hugh Callaghan details his ordeal in the book, *Cruel Fate,* co-authored with Sally Mulready in 1994-1995. The movie Au nom du père (1993), was based on the Guildford Four, who were similarly jailed using false confessions, along with members of their extended family living in London. That's how the Brits induced Gerry Conlon, Daniel Day-Lewis' character, to confess, by throwing his father, aunts, uncles, and cousins in jail, too. Members of the Guildford Four ordeal were released in 1989 and 1991, where illegal police tactics and hidden evidence were brought to light. The appeals trials of the Guildford Four paved the way for the release of the Birmingham Six, who were in jail longer, and their pleas for appeals were ignored, and never heard until after the Guildford Four / Conlon Family convictions were finally thrown out.
All of the innocent Birmingham Six and Guildford Four were still in jail at the time this movie was released.
According to the book 'Picture This!: A Guide to over 300 Environmentally, Socially, and Politically Relevant Films and Videos' (1992) by Sky Hiatt, "Hidden Agenda - Secret défense (1990) ignited critical tumult and shouting matches when it aired at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990". In an 01/01/1991 Los Angeles Times article, David Gritten states "around this time, all hell broke loose . . . In Cannes, a press conference for Hidden Agenda - Secret défense (1990) ended in uproar. Alexander Walker, film critic of the London Evening Standard, stood up and launched a blistering attack on the film, casting doubt on the truth of the events depicted." Director Ken Loach said: "Then when we tried to answer Walker, we were shouted down by a group of [British] journalists. Then they in turn were shouted down by members of the international press. One of them accused Walker of representing the most reactionary elements in the British press. As someone said at the time, there's a lot of competition." Further: "Finally, a group of journalists from Britain's tabloid press, not including Walker, formed a deputation to Cannes Festival director Gilles Jacob, demanding that Hidden Agenda - Secret défense (1990) be withdrawn. 'He took great delight in laughing them from the room, says Loach, his eyes twinkling."
According to show-business trade paper 'Variety', the picture "seems inspired by the notorious Stalker case. Stalker was a top-level British police officer sent to Northern Ireland to investigate the Royal Ulster Constabulary. His eventual highly critical report was hushed up, and he resigned and went public."
On not making this picture in the suspense-thriller genre, director Ken Loach said: "We decided to tell the story as straight as possible, without souped-up music or fancy camera angles. I felt if we used thriller technique, it would invalidate the sense of truth. We might get more people on the edge of their seats, but they might not believe it. I thought it more important for people to say, yes, this could be true."
In regards to the this being selected as the official British entry for the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, Ivor Stanbrook, member of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, described the picture as "not a British entry, but an IRA entry."