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Newly declassified documents from the National Archives of Ireland have shed light on the 2004 Northern Bank Robbery, implicating senior IRA figure Bobby Storey in its orchestration. The audacious heist at Belfast’s Donegall Square extracted around £26.5 million, posing a serious threat to the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland at that time. These state papers, which surfaced more than two decades after the event, reveal candid opinions from senior officials, politicians, and other influential figures who were involved in or aware of the incident.
Bobby Storey, who passed away in 2020, was regarded as a pivotal figure within the republican movement and played a significant role in securing support for the peace process among hardline republicans. As a prominent republican, he held positions including the IRA’s head of intelligence during the mid-1990s and later served as Sinn Féin’s northern chairman. Storey’s lengthy incarceration began with internment without trial when he was 17, just a year after joining the IRA in 1972. Security sources, according to the released papers, linked Storey to multiple major incidents, notably the Northern Bank robbery. The UK government believed the complexity of the crime meant it couldn’t have been executed solely by a local brigade but required coordination and approval from higher echelons, with Storey suspected as the mastermind.
The leaked documents further elaborate on how the stolen money might have been spent. Fiona Flood from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs met with a former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) prisoner who suggested that the funds were likely used for “lifestyle spending” rather than being reserved for pensions or political campaigns. The UVF contact speculated that the robbery served more as a demonstration of the IRA’s continued operational capability, aiming to inspire or reassure its members with a high-profile act.
Interestingly, not everyone accepted the claim that republicans were behind the robbery. Influential Irish American figures expressed doubts that senior Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had prior knowledge of the heist. Bill Flynn, a former chairman of Mutual of America, famously declared he would “bet the lives of his grandchildren” that the two were unaware. His colleague Tom Moran, later Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, echoed this view but suggested that a rogue faction within the IRA might have been responsible. Meanwhile, the Northern Bank, once the site of the robbery, underwent a rebranding in 2012 and is now known as Danske Bank.
In a more lighthearted revelation, the archive papers also hint at cultural connections between the British royal family and Ireland. In 2000, then Prince Charles displayed enthusiasm for visiting Ireland again and showed interest in the success of Irish pop groups such as Westlife. This curiosity was reportedly piqued by attendance at the Royal Variety Performance and the musical tastes of his sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex. These personal insights are documented in correspondence from the Irish ambassador to London found within the archives, available for public access since January
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