"Love/Hate"- An Irish TV Drama Quiz

Answer: John Boy

Whether his name is a sly nod back to "The Waltons" or not is something I don't know. All I know is that when this John Boy says "goodnight", it's usually at the business end of a gun!

Played by the brilliant Aiden Gillen, whom you will probably also know as Littlefinger from "Game of Thrones". Yeah.

Answer: Spain

Darren had fled to Spain before the series began, charged with firearms offences, and only came back because his brother, Robbie, was being released from prison. Well, not only that, but it's the main reason given.

Answer: The Continuity IRA

In a great intermingling of twists and plot strands, one of the gang is mistakenly killed by a member of the CIRA, and Nidge tries to keep the peace, but when his niece is raped by the leader of the CIRA they kill him. Thus begins a race to evade the kind of summary justice the Provisionals are known for.

Answer: Shoots himself in the head by accident

A brilliant performance from Brian Gleeson, son of celebrated Irish actor Brendan. Messing around with a revolver, Huey threatens Potsy with it, then puts it to his head as he laughs "I took all the bullets out!" But he has forgotten the "one in the chamber"...

Answer: John Boy to Huey

As Nidge prepares for his big wedding day, and having asked John Boy and Huey not to attend (as they're both psychos and Trish has demanded neither be invited), John Boy decides (high) to go anyway. He rationalises it thus: "Sure if it wasn't for me Nidge wouldn't be able to afford this big wedding.

He'd be having sandwiches at some poxy hotel at the Red Cow Roundabout. Red Cow Roundabout for Nidgey and Trish!" The two then proceed to crash, and ruin, the wedding.

Answer: Stumpy's

After he kicks the living daylights out of her, she has a miscarriage. When Darren learns what he has done, he beats Stumpy to within an inch of his life, without gang approval. This leads to Stumpy taking his revenge at the end of season one.

Answer: Twice

At the end of season one, as mentioned in the previous question, Darren is shot in the very last scene by the passenger in a car, whom we don't see, but who is revealed in season two to be Stumpy. It's a shocking ending, and Darren is left for dead. He survives though, only to be shot again at the end of the second season.

He does not make it this time though, and so ends his part in the series. A brave move by the writer, Stuart Carolan, as up to now Darren has been the focus of the series, as he endeavours to extricate himself from the gangland life and have a normal relationship with Rosie.

Answer: Nidge

A particularly savage beating with an iron bar ensues, out of the blue, when Tommy confesses he has been sleeping with CIRA man Dano's wife. This results in Tommy being hospitalised with brain damage, and colours his remaining life in the series, leaving him not quite a vegetable but of much lower intelligence (and he wasn't really that smart to begin with!)

Answer: Pet cat

In a shocking and unexpected first scene, one of the kids is trying out a machine-gun he has been holding for one of the gang. Threatening his mate with it, he fires it and it hits a white cat, killing it. Although it's a harrowing thing to see, and you do wonder if this sort of thing happens in real life from time to time (and also I have three cats and love animals), the reaction across the country was ridiculous. So much so that the next week the cat's owner had to have the cat on "The Late Late Show" (our most popular talk show) so that everyone could see it was not really dead! As if!

Answer: Warren

His son is the only thing other than himself that Nidge truly cares about. At one point, he confides to Darren "I couldn't give a (bleep) about any of them. Not even Trish. I mean, I love her, but I don't care about her. Only Warren." Indeed.