A court has heard that three masked gunmen burst into the home of a former All-Ireland hurling champion as part of a botched €3m tiger raid on Bank of Ireland.
Adrian Ronan, a bank official in Kilkenny, was warned at gunpoint that his children would have no mother for Christmas if he didn't do what he was told.
The Kilkenny minors manager fought back tears as he recalled being woken at 5am by armed and masked raiders who held his three young children at gunpoint in a downstairs bathroom
The Bank of Ireland official was directed to help the gang steal €3m from the Parliament Street branch with a stark warning his wife Mary would die if he messed up.
She was taken away, tied up and held captive for eight hours at a weather station outside Kilkenny city.
However the raid never went ahead and she finally managed to free herself.
Dublin man Stephen Freeman from Balcurris Gardens in Ballymun is the only gang member to be brought to justice for the foiled robbery back in November 2009.
His role was to move money from one place to another. He will be sentenced at the end of this month.