Police chief expected to link IRA to £22m bank raid
Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Hugh Orde will today comment for the first time on claims that the IRA were behind the record £22m (€31.3m) bank robbery in Belfast before Christmas.
He will meet the chair and vice-chair of the North’s Policing Board, Desmond Rea and Denis Bradley, in Belfast to brief them on the investigation.
However if, as expected, he announces that the IRA is linked to the raid on the vaults of the Northern Bank in Belfast city centre, it would deliver a massive blow to hopes of a deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont and remove the gun forever from politics in the North.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday rejected claims that the IRA was involved and accused elements in the security services and the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists of trying to demonise republicans.
Unionists will be looking closely at Mr Orde’s statement today and are likely to urge the British and Irish governments to get tough with the IRA if there is evidence of its involvement.
Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson dismissed Mr Adams’s comments about attempts to demonise republicans.
“I am not prepared to believe the PSNI are scurrying around the homes of republicans as part of an exercise to pass responsibility on to republicans,” the East Belfast MP said. “I believe they are following a definite line of inquiry.
“The Chief Constable has to come out clearly and indicate if there are any links between those involved in the bank robbery and those in the republican movement.”
Officials in London and Dublin will be concerned that any suggestion of an IRA link will put back the prospect of a comprehensive deal in Northern Ireland to restore devolution and end paramilitary activity before the next British general election, believed to be this year.
SDLP Policing Board member, Alex Attwood, yesterday said Mr Orde should only comment authoritatively when he had the full facts and figures about the raid at his disposal.
The West Belfast Assembly member criticised yesterday’s IRA statement for failing to address directly allegations about Provisional involvement in the raid.
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