Cillian Murphy: A native of Cork city and one of Ireland's best, most in-demand actors Murphy is visibly and audibly excited as he talks about working on the Loach film.
"I play Damien O'Donovan, a doctor - a fictional character like everyone else in the film, although there are elements of historical figures," he says. "Ernie O'Malley was a medical student, for example. My character is initially a reluctant participant in the War of Independence - and I only know how far we are up in the script at this stage! I don't even know if he's still alive at the end.
"I've never worked like this before and now I'm wondering why everyone else doesn't do this, too. There's no intellectualisation of the role or any actorly waffle. The process promotes pure honesty in your performance. And it's great to be shooting in sequence."
Most recently seen in Batman Begins, Murphy also completed Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto and Wes Craven's Red-Eye, before returning home to Cork for the Loach film. "This is a lovely antidote to Red-Eye, because that was the first time I did the whole studio thing in LA," he says. "I had to get used to that whole system with so many people involved. I didn't enjoy living in LA, but it's a very well written thriller. Doing this is great, though. There's no nonsense or bullshit whatsoever. It's just about the film and the story and the performances. It's bliss working on it."
Liam Cunningham
"My character, Dan, is an illiterate, slum-dwelling guy, a train driver," says Cunningham. When we first meet him, he's getting the shit kicked out of him by squaddies he refuses to transport because of the ITGWU policy at the time of not carrying soldiers and weapons. Then he joins a flying column in Cork."
Loach is "the epitome of decency and humanity", Cunningham says. "As an actor, you're walking a tightrope, but you usually have a net underneath you, but here the only net is Ken. He keeps you on your toes all the time when he's shooting a scene. He starts to unravel the script and then works his way back and there's additional material. You have to listen very carefully because you're never sure when your cue is going to come. It brings an incredible reality and unpredictability to every scene, and it's a fabulous way to work. As much as he can, he takes the acting away."
Cunningham, whose many notable films include A Love Divided and Dog Soliders, plays the only Dubliner in Loach's film. He describes it as factual events happening to fictional people. "The story is ugly, and it's complicated. There's nothing black and white about it. Instead of going for the ease of the drama and the tears in the eye, Ken and Paul show very clearly the effect the conflict has on human beings at the time, realising that we're killing our own and forced to ask what are we fighting for."
Padraic Delaney
The film marks the first leading role in a movie for Padraic Delaney, who is 27 and from Adamstown in Co Wexford. "I was studying civil engineering, but I found I didn't enjoy it," he says. "I dropped out and thought I'd have a go at acting. I was working in pubs and doing drama classes by night and then I got accepted into the theatre studies course at Trinity." He had been offered a play in Dublin this summer, but turned it down when Loach cast him. "I play Teddy, who's a very single-minded individual," he says. "His main concern is getting the Brits out at all costs, and he'll do anything for that to happen. He's very pragmatic. Rather than sitting around and talking with the idealists, he's more likely to pick up a gun.
"I had seen some of Ken's films and imagined he was some mad Scot. Then you meet him and you realise he's a delightful English gentleman with a lovely sense of humility.
"Of course, if he has to be strong with you on the set, he will be. You just put your trust in Ken and give yourself over to the experience.
"Now all these casting directors who never responded to my letters before have been sending me e-mails wishing me good luck.
It's brilliant. I just want to keep working and doing good work."