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Early in the film "Patriot Games" the character Kevin O'Donnell is held up in a large rural house, awaiting a knock on the door from Jimmy and his boys. What is Kevin watching on the TV? It seems to be some kind of Irish music video with paramilitary overtones.

Is it real life footage, or just an artifact of the movie? If it's just a movie artifact is it realistic to the culture and time, is there any specific real life inspiration we could point to?

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Great track, remember it well. (and ..er.. 'Robin (The Hooded Man)' lol)

Clannad - Theme from Harry's Game

caps to match the footage (caps below are chronological order from the video, which is not the case in the movie):

enter image description here

"Theme from Harry's Game" is a 1982 song by Clannad commissioned as the theme for Harry's Game, a Yorkshire Television miniseries adapted from a 1975 novel set in The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

It has since appeared in several Hollywood movies, most notably Patriot Games, in which an IRA member, played by Patrick Bergin, is seen watching the music video for the song on his television.

Clannad's 1990 album Anam was released in the United States in 1992 to capitalise on the Patriot Games exposure, with "Harry's Game" inserted in the tracklist; the album sold well and the track was often broadcast on VH1.

In 1992, the "Theme from Harry's Game" was used in the soundtrack to the film Patriot Games, and it was also re-released as a single.

From youtube comments:

Harry's Game produced in the 1980's about the troubles in Northern Ireland. A British Army agent is sent to the heart of Belfast to track down a gunman responsible for the killing of a British politician. It's an incredibly powerful drama. Adapted from a book by Gerald Seymour.

link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_from_Harry%27s_Game

link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry%27s_Game

link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

clip from the movie featuring the music:

End titles to Harrys Game:

(and just for fun)

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  • For a comparison with other Clannad film tracks, I might have opted for I Will Find You from The Last of the Mohicans instead – a much better song than Robin (The Hooded Man), and one that actually matches Theme from Harry’s Game quite well. (Also, as an extra bonus, the chorus of Theme was reused, with some new extra verse lyrics also sung by Máire Brennan, in Chicane’s Saltwater in 1999, where it got a slightly more techno vibe.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Oct 5 at 19:33
  • @JanusBahsJacquet - fair enough, just that at the time of writing, Robin popped in to my head. On another day maybe the other would have done.
    – blobbymcblobby
    Oct 5 at 19:35

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