What was the point of the Northern Bank robbery, asks Dan Keenan
IT MAY have been complex, detailed and daring and executed with smooth intelligent ease, but the robbery of the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast made little sense.
The theft of £26.5 million (€33.56 million) is thought to have involved four crime sites and a gang of as many as 30 individuals - kidnappers, drivers, scouts and lookouts in addition to those skilled in laundering the huge haul of banknotes and destroying the trail of evidence.
Much of the cash was probably rendered worthless by a series of measures to identify the missing notes and by the redesign of the bank's banknotes. Police were as quick to insist that the IRA was responsible for the theft as Sinn Féin was to deny it. The British and Irish governments believed the Provisionals were behind the theft, a position still almost universally held to this day.
The then head of the 45-strong detective team told The Irish Times: "There is no doubt where the blame lies. It was not a group of maverick individuals going out to do it on their own bat. An operation of this size would have been sanctioned at the very highest level in that organisation because of its scale, complexity and ramifications." Det Supt Andy Sproule said he had the benefit of intelligence, a productive liaison with the Garda and evidence to back his claim.
Of Chief Constable Hugh Orde's accusation of the IRA, Mr Sproule was emphatic: "I support that on the basis of the information and the evidence, the intelligence that I have. There is no doubt." Yet the IRA action seemed to fly in the face of everything that republicans in general, and Sinn Féin in particular, had struggled hard to achieve politically.
Politics were already in turmoil following allegations of a republican spy ring at Stormont. Then in December 2004 Sinn Féin and the DUP failed to nail down an agreement to enable the return of devolution.
The intense efforts to achieve a political breakthrough involving both Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern that month were made while the planning of the complex robbery continued in the background.
One government source insisted at the time that the bank job was a non-runner had agreement between Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley been secured.
The IRA must have been prepared to jeopardise years of slow political progress flowing from its decisions to call two cessations and to decommission some of its weapons.
Perhaps the IRA wanted to show it was still active prior to quitting the scene ultimately, which it did the following year.
Police sources suggested at the time that the new tactic of "tiger robbery" - using staff members acting under duress to rob their own workplaces - had its origins in the Troubles. They believe the "human bomb", whereby people were forced at gunpoint to deliver car bombs to their targets, was the forerunner of the Northern Bank robbery.
Yesterday's verdict spells yet more trouble for Sir Hugh Orde, with pressure mounting on him to provide an explanation for the failure of police to secure a conviction in the third high-profile case in a year.
This judgment, the acquittal of Seán Hoey in the Omagh bombing case and the inability to find anyone guilty of the murder of Robert McCartney in the past 12 months, is another failure the PSNI and the Public Prosecution Service could have done without.
Sir Hugh has neither ruled himself in nor out of contention to head London's Metropolitan Police following the resignation of its top officer last week. Privately, he may view the vacancy there as very tempting indeed.