The General

Based on the story of Martin Cahill, a notorious Dublin gangster who was the mastermind behind a series of daring robberies that stunned Ireland in the 1980s. In a twenty-year career marked by obsessive secrecy, brutality and meticulous planning, Martin Cahill stole over 60 million dollars. Despite being the country's most wanted man, he brazenly eluded capture, thumbing his nose at both the police and the IRA, whom he despised--along with the Church and the State--as institutional authority figures. He lived in a menage a trois with his wife and her sister, siring several children with both. While images of Cahill regularly appeared in the press, they were always obscured, typically by Cahill's hand placed in front of his face. Although Cahill was a legend in Ireland during his lifetime, his true identity remained as an enigma.