Conor Quinlan, who plays P.J. in the movie, is the real-life grandson of Commandant Pat Quinlan, one of the main characters in the movie. Conor (as P.J.) gets to utter the line, "Quinlan doesn't know what he's doing. He's going to get us killed."
The commandant's son, Leo Quinlan shared a radio log with the film's director--a radio log the commandant had smuggled out of the Congo containing information that even the Irish army had not seen.
The film's director, Richie Smyth, was adamant that the cast should all be given proper military training. The actors went through weeks of intense training at a boot camp in South Africa, undergoing the same kind of training that the original soldiers would have gone through. At one point, Smyth even put Jamie Dornan in charge of the other actors, so he could "create the dynamic" of leading men.
The old, hard-to-come-by-but-historically-accurate, Swedish Carl Gustav m/45 sub machine guns, used by the actors portraying the Irish troops in the movie, were procured in South Africa. By checking the serial numbers, it was confirmed that some of the firearms were the very same guns used in the Congo conflict.
The world premiere screening of this film was held at the Galway Film Fleadh (Ireland's leading film festival) the evening of July 9, 2016. Leo Quinlan, son of Commandant Pat Quinlan, made an announcement at the end of the screening that--earlier that same day--the Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe had authorised the creation of the award of Presidential Unit Citation for the men of 'A' Company who fought at Jadotville, the recognition coming more than half a century after the conflict. On September 17, 2016, this citation was formally presented to the veterans and the next of kin of deceased soldiers at a special ceremony held at Custume Barracks, Athlone. (The 2005 honour referenced at the end of the movie itself consists of a commemorative stone erected at these barracks and the commissioning of a portrait of Quinlan which hangs in the Congo Room of the Irish Defence Forces' UN School.)