May 2005, under an agreement with his widow Frances, the CAB seized and subsequently sold the property. Personal life Cahill was a diabetic. Cahill was married to Frances Lawless with whom he fathered five children. However, it was also widely rumoured that Cahill had, with Frances' approval, a second partner in Frances' younger sister Tina Lawless, with whom it is believed he fathered four further children. This polygamous domestic arrangement was depicted in the 1998 biopic of Cahill's life, The General. In popular culture In 1998 John Boorman (who had lived in Ireland for nearly 20 years) directed a biographical film titled The General, starring Brendan Gleeson as Cahill. The film won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. It was based on a book by Irish crime journalist Paul Williams, who was also the crime editor of the Irish tabloid the Sunday World. Boorman himself once had his home burgled by Cahill, who stole the gold record which Boorman had won for the Deliverance soundtrack. This incident is depicted in the film. Ken Stott starred as Cahill in a 1999 BBC drama, Vicious Circle written by Kieran Prendiville The 2003 film Veronica Guerin implies that John Gilligan ordered Cahill's murder. In the film Gilligan and Traynor are not portrayed as Cahill's subordinates. Instead, Gilligan appears as a rival mob boss and Traynor as a lower-level associate. The film Ordinary Decent Criminal, starring Kevin Spacey, is loosely based on Cahill's life. In 2004, a book written by Matthew Hart was released entitled The Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art, which depicted the story of the Russborough House heist in 1986 and Cahill's involvement. Cahill's eldest daughter, Frances Cahill, released a book in 2008 entitled Martin Cahill, My Father. Quotes "Reform school was my primary school, St. Patrick's Institution my secondary school, and Mountjoy my university—they taught me everything I know." "Whatever it is you say I am, I am not. Whatever it is you want from me, I will give. Whatever it is you take from me, you can take. What is it you can do to me? The worst thing you can do is kill me, after that I won't care, I am still free." See also List of unsolved murders Footnotes External links Martin Cahill at Dictionary of Irish Biography 1949 births 1994 murders in the Republic of Ireland 1994 deaths Art thieves