Nick Hamm's historical fantasy is based on a real-life incident that took place near the end of the decades-long civil conflict between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland. In October 2006 the British and Irish governments, along with the major political parties in Northern Ireland, convened in Saint Andrews, Scotland, to hammer out a power-sharing arrangement between the Democratic Unionist Party, led by the fire-breathing Protestant minister Ian Paisley, and Sinn Féin, the left-leaning Irish republican party. During the negotiations, Paisley was permitted to fly home to Ulster for an evening to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary, and as a security protocol (to protect his plane from a possible ground-to-air attack), he was accompanied by Martin McGuinness, a leader of Sinn Féin and a former chief of staff for the Irish Republican Army.
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