Hat tip to Henry94, who alerted us to the story in another thread. It seemed to deserve it's own blog entry, so I've shifted Henry94's initial reaction to the new thread.

Here it is, unedited:

There was a major robbery in Dublin today during which a family was held hostage and 2 million was taken.

In a statement reminisent of Hugh Orde, Bertie Ahern said that only a few groups would have been capable of it.

Is it possible that we are looking at another major robbery being pinned on te IRA?

I have to admit it is hard to imagine the IRA actively planning a further robbery right while everyone was still watching them after the last one. No doubt the police will be looking for hallmarks.

If the gang didn't leave any fingerprints apparently that is a hallmark of the IRA.

Pat

Are you categorically saying it wasn't the IRA, or just that you don't have a clue who it was?

I don't think anyone could reasonably say at this stage that they have a clue who was behind this.

vespasian,

that is a really silly question.

The language being used in Dublin tonight (highly organised, military precision) would suggest that if it wasn't the IRA then we may have new suspects for the Northern Bank job.

If it was the IRA then I would have to admit that I have no understanding of what they think they're doing.

Sky News Ireland had the words "military precision" emblazoned in their red box below the pictures...just in case you did'nt get the nudge nudge.Then that eejit Moooney from the "Star Sunday" was invited to give his "opinion" on Q and A on RTE1 by John Bowman and tried to talk about comments from people in the "security industry" (whatever that is) that there must have been "some pre-planning" of this robbery "unlike the normal behaviour of criminal gangs", who I take it from that comment just dream up their days criminal activities over a lunch time pint depending on who they run into in their local. He then concluded after 5 minutes total conjecture, that at this stage no-one knows who did it.

I'd also like to question ,just exactly what is all this "planning" and "military precision" everyone goes on about.

I worked as a van guard for Securicor briefly as a student in the late 1970's and the full-time staff of these outfits were lowly paid and often openly gabbed in bars about the amount of loot they were moving around , they tended to live in the poorer areas and were often ex-servicemen.One noticeable thing about them was the fact that if they had any code of conduct at all it was to definitely NOT do anything that might endanger themselves,and if that meant handing out the dosh out of the side of the van as quickly as possible, then so be it.

I don't suppose much will have changed in their socio-economic locus, nor in their healthy survival instincts since then. I can not see it as being that difficult for criminals to identify one of these drivers. As for the amount,well in one run between two West midland towns in England we were loaded with 3.5 million sterling in the late 1970's, so with inflation etc 2 million euro would be a quite normal little run I'd reckon.

So just how much "planning" would it take to hold one of these hapless individuals and their family at gunpoint and then ensure by extreme menaces that they are guaranteed to drive the van to you? Its hardly rocket science.

Pat

It is only a silly question if you ignore GA's and MMcG's continual statements that the IRA were not involved in the Northern Bank raid, I thought you might be taking their lead.

Ted Kennedy had a lucky escape. If he had left his announcement (not to meet Adams) one more day he would have been accused of demonizing the IRA following today's planned robbery of €2 million in Dublin. Adams already knew that Kennedy was not going to meet him, so he set him up.

Bertie Ahern told the Dail a few weeks ago (before the McCartney murder) how he noticed that "somebody" was able to turn IRA violence on and off to reflect the state of Sinn Fein's negotiations in the peace process (Sinn Fein has always called the IRA ceasefire a "cessation").

Ireland's Justice Minister and the Irish police are quite certain that Adams dominates the IRA Army Council, where IRA terrorism is turned on and off, so we know who that "somebody" is.

Niall O'Dowd today told RTE that Ted Kennedy made a bad call not to meet Adams. O'Dowd, a faithful Adams' supporter, said that the way forward is to talk to Adams.

His message, through O'Dowd, is therefore abundantly clear: expect more and more IRA activity until London, Dublin and Washington talk to me (Adams). He got Tony Blair's attention in 1997 by the murder of two RUC foot patrol officers on the crowded streets of Portadown.

This is what real terrorism looks like! It is turned on and off as needed. Blind terror is useless.

Bin Laden is only a boy scout compared to Adams. He did not get to sit beside former US envoy Richard Haass at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York yesterday and tell the folks that "eventually you will have to talk to me", while his Army was robbing a bank - Gerry did.

Bin Laden has a lot to learn about the tactical use of terror - Adams is writing the book.

As with Blair in 1997, it will only later dawn on the governments the meaning of O'Dowd's words on RTE today. It is deja vu all over again. Gerry Adams is not on the ropes, he is just warming up.

"Bin Laden is only a boy scout compared to Adams."

It's hard to imagine people actually believe this stuff.

vespasian
I have to agree with Pat, it's a silly question, full stop.


levitas
Spot on. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together could pull such a raid off.
All this rubbish about "military precision" etc is just that...rubbish, they are trying to sound like they actually know something.

"It's hard to imagine people actually believe this stuff."

Gas isn't it? ;)

vespasian,

the robbery has only just occurred and there are scant details, therefore to ask me to rule anyone in or out at this stage is quite silly and I think you probably know that.

Ireland Today

You've solved the robbery while I slept. I'm impressed. But you better tell the gardai because they say they are still keeping an open mind.

You can show them how much more effective a closed mind can be.

Ireland today - you sure your not really Ireland yesterday? (like on a geological time scale).
I've haven't read such bile soaked nonsense in years!
I actually didn't realise they had internet access in the kind of places where people think like that - thanks for bringing me up to date.

And to a certain degree this story reminds me of the infamous UTV Lynx theft of two months ago.

I can't see how this was the IRA - most probably a copy-cat.

Are people really suggesting that it is the exact same personnel that carried this one out? Highly unlikely in my opinion.

Apparently historians are checking the passenger list to see if any members of Sinn Fein were aboard the Titanic!

Note to journalists

The gardai now suspect that the Dublin Heist was carried out by a Dublin criminal gang and not the IRA. Please observe the following guidelines for the reporting of this story.

- Terms such as ‘military precision” and “highly organised” are no longer appropriate.

- Similarities between this robbery and the Northern Bank job are deemed wildly speculative and have no place in a family newspaper.

- The lack of fingerprints in the case are no longer an indication of IRA involvement and can simply be attributed to the wearing of gloves

- Nothing should be written that might convey the impression that this gang were anything other than a bunch of amateurs who got lucky. Under no circumstances should they be linked with any other robberies or crimes. We are after all

Henry94,

Hold on just one second. It is obvious that in the absence of any evidence then it was obviously the IRA and that obviously efforts to implicate a criminal gang is obviously an obvious attempt to create a distraction from the lack of evidence concerning the Northern Robbery, which was obviously committed by the IRA, obviously.

Henry,

this is terrible, i was hoping this story could have done the rounds for another couple of weeks. Unionists seem to be running out of steam on a few other threads and the little dears could have done with a new story.
There'll be more non republican threads on the site soon and we can't have that.

All of a sudden Garda assessments seem to carry some weight.

"The gardai now suspect that the Dublin Heist was carried out by a Dublin criminal gang and not the IRA"

This raid is like a bunch of other raids which have either taken place or been attempted in the past couple of years. Perhaps the same gang could be responsible for a number of these?

Maca -

The Guards seem to be pointing the finger at the Monk.