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The Irish Film Censor, who passed the film with a 15PG (now defunct, but equal to 15A) certificate, acknowledged on the official Film Censor website, that had this film been fiction, or of any other plot source than it was, it would probably have received an 18 certificate.
The dance scene where Veronica dances with her family to "Everlasting Love" was added in on the spot by Cate Blanchett.
While watching a football match together, Veronica tells the Tattooed Boy that once she met Eric Cantona. Cate Blanchett and Cantona worked together in Elizabeth (1998).
Composer Harry Gregson-Williams heard a boy (Brian O'Donnell) singing on the street for money in Dublin when he arrived to spend a few days on the set of the film. Later, he tracked the boy down again and recorded him singing six or seven folk songs acapella in a quiet alley. Gregson-Williams chose "Fields of Athenry" from the recording and added his own music around the song.
A daily Irish newspaper recently reported that Portlaoise prison (where John Gilligan and Brian Meehan are incarcerated) screens the movie at least once a month in the prison common hall at the request of the prisoners.