Director David Keating met with hundreds of young actors and conducted casting sessions in Ireland, England and America to find the right actor to play Frankie.
At a party early in the film, "Rosalie/Cowgirl's Song" is playing from the live Thin Lizzy album Live and Dangerous. This album was not released until June of 1978, the year after the film is set.
When the boys go to get drinks for everyone after the election, one of the bottles of alcohol is Malibu brand rum, which was not distributed world wide until the early 1980s.
Frankie: Today's the thirtieth of June. My exam results should come on the 18th of August. God, it's not long. Forty-nine days, then I'm dead. If I was a *real* rebel, I wouldn't give a damn.