The Northern Bank robbery was a twenty-six-million-pound theft in December 2004, carried out while the IRA was giving up its weapons and the decommissioning process was almost complete. Its scale made it the largest bank robbery in United Kingdom history at the time; its timing made it a test of what the end of armed conflict meant in practice.

The robbery and its timing

The robbery occurred years after the Good Friday Agreement. The IRA no longer needed money to buy weapons, and the process of decommissioning, overseen by Father Alec Reid, was nearly complete when the thieves took the money. The juxtaposition was stark: the organization was surrendering its weapons while a major robbery was adding a vast sum to its resources.

Alleged involvement and political response

Bobby Storey, a senior republican figure and close confidant of Gerry Adams, was widely believed to have been involved in the robbery. The account does not establish his role as a proven fact. His reputed connection nevertheless sharpened the political significance of the theft, particularly because Storey remained a prominent figure in republican politics after the peace process.

Aftermath and significance

For critics of Sinn Féin, the robbery reinforced the impression that the IRA had become a mafia organization. Dolours Price questioned what the money was for if, as people were being told, the war was over. Her response drew attention to a contradiction the robbery had made difficult to ignore: political transition and weapons decommissioning were underway, yet the organization was associated with a theft on an unprecedented scale. The event therefore became not only a major crime but also an argument about whether the IRA's methods and purposes had changed with the peace process.