The Guns of Heaven / Pete Hamill

American reporter Sam Briscoe, after visiting relatives in Northern Ireland and inadvertently becoming involved in an international IRA weapons smuggling plot, must contend with a group of sadistic terrorists who have not only kidnapped his daughter but are planning to blow up a historic Manhattan landmark.

While visiting his 72-year-old uncle – a staunch IRA supporter – in Northern Ireland, Briscoe gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak face-to-face with an enigmatic IRA leader known only as Commander Steel. In return for the exclusive interview, Briscoe agrees to deliver an envelope to an Irish tavern owner in Queens upon his return to the States. But shortly after Briscoe delivers the envelope to its intended recipient, Irish-born Jack McDaid, McDaid and his bar are blown up by a bomb; and Briscoe becomes embroiled in a bloody conflict that could mean the deaths of him, his daughter, four prominent Irish-American politicians, and thousands of innocent people.