This is the second story in Roddy Doyle's "Barrytown Trilogy", following the adventures of the Rabbitte family. However, as 20th century Fox owned the film rights to the Rabbitte name (from The Commitments), the characters had to be re-named in the subsequent film adaptations (The Snapper, The Van).
Pat Laffan, the actor who portrayed George Burgess, plays a character called Pat Mustard in the Irish comedy series Father Ted in 1998. Pat Mustard is a milkman who is also a ladies man and the priests notice that many of the babies born recently in the village look suspiciously like Pat Mustard!
The hospital where the baby is born is actually a real maternity hospital called the Rotunda in the middle of Dublin.
It was apdated into a stage play written by Roddy Doyle himself which is close to the novel. Starring Simon Delaney, Hilda Fay, and Hazel Clifford in her first acting debut when she was in college at The Lir Academy in Trinity College. The play ran 103 shows completely sold out to great reviews & much loved by new audiences at The Gate Theatre Dublin from 14th June -15th Sept 2018 & came back for second run 6th June - 24th August 2019. The Gate Theatre is on Parnell Square in Dublin right beside The Rotunda Hospital where Sharon as her new born baby
This was granted a cinema release in the UK after its initial TV airing.