Never cared for this episode. It's dull. I don't like the whole IRA angle either. Plus the way they overplayed the Irishness of Devlin. The only thing missing was a leprechaun.

Maybe he "wanted to get caught." That would make him practically the only COLUMBO killer who did (except maybe Tommy Brown, with his "I'm glad it's all over" line).

I agree to some degree about the social comment in it due to the I.R.A., which is one reason I also have mixed feelings about NOW YOU SEE HIM (not that either one makes the social comment the BIGGEST part of it).

My biggest hang-up with it is still the ridiculously small one I've mentioned before, and that's that it's about the only one without a catchy title. If the show had gone in for them only part of the time it would be one thing, but this is just about the ONLY episode without one.

Oh, i like that title!

I don't exactly hate the name, but it has a "sore thumb" look to me alongside all the others.

I guess I'm in the minority, but this is one of my favorite episodes. I love how Devlin tells O'Connor that nobody could ever connect him to the crime exactly when Kerry interrupts to announce that a policeman wants to see him.

I agree that Devlin was perhaps too Irish, but I still loved his character. I was amazed to discover that Clive Revill is actually from New Zealand.

My biggest problem with the episode is that Devlin was a celebrity, and a spokesman for stopping the Irish violence. Yet he personally went to obtain guns. That's a little too conspicuous for a gun running operation, to have a well-known face arrange the deals.

But still overall a great episode.

While neither a favorite episode of mine, nor one of my least favorite, my only real issue with it is it being the finale for the 70s run, with its emphasis on Irish politics being too removed a theme to be a fitting culmination for the series.
I agree about the title, too; it's especially glaring since much of the episode revolves around Devlin's poetic nature, it seems as though the title would reflect that. Also conspicuous is that Howard Berk's previous entry in the series, "By Dawn's Early Light", had one of the most poetic titles; it seems as though he could have come up with a similarly interesting name this time, too.

And in regards to Devlin's penchant for poetry, my favorite instance is his response to the dealer's greeting, "What's going down?" - "The world, in terminal descent."

I didn't like the I.R.A. angle either. Columbo is too genteel of a show (if that's the right word) to truly portray the dark underbelly of a terrorist organization. One of the most ridiculous scenes was the sequence that showed Joe Devlin "shopping around" for a new gun supplier. One of his old contacts tells him that he's totally legitimate now and won't take a chance dealing in illegal operations. Devlin simply drives away in frustration.

Yeah, an I.R.A. terrorist is really going to take "no" for an answer. In a realistic drama, Devlin would MAKE that fellow supply him with guns whether he likes it or not -- by holding a knife to his throat, blowing up his car, kidnapping his spouse or child, or any number of other persuasions.

I do like that way that (like so many COLUMBOS) it muddles things when it comes to whether the victim "asks for it" or not. After all, he's an arms dealer (someone the audience isn't meant to sympathize with), but he gets murdered for supposedly cheating Devlin when he wasn't.

I've always liked this episode. I love the music, Revill is so talented, despite the caricatured Devlin, and the final lines are perfect.