Yo, what's up?
I am aware that his has nothing to do with the end of the novel. However this question can only be answered after having finished reading it, which put it back into context.

The topic of the thread says it: I'd like to ask you if you liked the character Cal.

As the gentleman that I am I will give you my opinion to start this off with a little rant:

First of all, I hated the character Cal and had no sympathy for him whatsoever.
As the main character of the story he seemed just too passive to me. I'd describe him as a socially awkward, lazy guy drowning in self-pitty, procrastinating everything that would be normal or important. Everything that happens in the novel happens on behalf of other characters. An example for this would be his relationship to Crilly at the beginning of the novel when he is not yet involved in the IRAs criminal activities. When reminded by his dad to call Crilly because he asked for him, Cal states in his thoughts that he "doesn't want everything to start all over again". By that he means being a mindless follower for that violent thug Crilly, just like he was at school when he helped beating up innocent young boys because he didn't have the courage do do anything against it. So he says he doesn't want it to start all over. But what does he do? Nothing. He procrastinates until Crilly reaches out to him.

There's a ton of examples like that in the story. Notice how it took the protestants to burn down his house for Cal to get closer to Marcella? Yeah, things like that.

So give me your insight on what you think. But don't write a whole research paper like Jonas does, that kind of stops the discussion.