The bizarre thing about Cahill was how he got both the IRA and the Loyalist terrorists involved in trying to offload the Beit collection - showing that hard cash and greed can make the strangest bedfellows.
Boorman's film was a piece of over-romanticised twaddle, though. Funny how often we're asked to suspend disbelief at the actions of thugs and psychopaths - witness the obsession with the equally unpleasant Kray family in the UK.
Still, let enough time pass, and distance lends enchantment to any sort of nastiness - Bonnie and Clyde were a right pair of little shits by all accounts, and if ever there was a real Robin Hood a guinea to a groat says he was a bad 'un too!
Still, we folkies are among the worse hagiographers - all those black-letter ballads glorifying the villains must have something to do with it...