 The character Ned Broy, played by Stephen Rea in the film, is in  fact a composite of the historical figures Ned Broy, who was a  double agent in the police, and Dick McKee, who was Commandant of  the Dublin Brigade of the IRA and hence a central figure in planning  intelligence operations with Collins. Broy survived the war, but  McKee was captured the night before the attack on British agents,  tortured and shot.