Alwyn was instilling a good deal of Irish atmosphere at this time. Amongst a busy schedule in 1945, scoring perhaps eleven short documentaries, The True Glory, Great Day, The Rake's Progress, and seven compositions for radio, he still had time in November 1945 to set off for Belfast with his friend the poet Louis MacNeice. Ostensibly the purpose was to oversee the music for Mac- Neice's local radio production about the city of Armargh, City Set on a Hill, but the trip was as much an excuse to visit Dublin for a rugby match, a passion of MacNeice’s. After the recording they adjourned to the Georgian house of W. R. Rodgers, who had written the script. There was plenty to drink, and the party ended into the night with MacNeice and Rodgers dancing to Alwyn's flute and drumming on an empty box.

Shortly after Alwyn's return to England he received a significant proposal:

At this time Reed's reputation was greater than David Lean’s. With The Way Ahead and The True Glory behind him, he could find backing for a subject of his own picking, even to a sympathetic study of an IRA member. The finance came readily from an enthusiastic Del Giudice and his Two Cities Films, for whom Reed had worked on The Way Ahead.