Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Northern Bank robbery/archive1
TFA blurb
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On 20 December 2004, £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Having taken family members of two bank officials hostage, an armed gang forced the workers to steal money in one of the largest bank robberies in the history of the United Kingdom. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), the British government and the Taoiseach all claimed the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible. Police forces made arrests in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. A sum of £2.3 million was impounded from a financial adviser, Ted Cunningham, in County Cork; he was convicted in 2009 and continues to make appeals. Chris Ward, one of the bank officials, was himself arrested in November 2005 and charged with robbery; the prosecution offered no evidence at trial and he was released. As a consequence of the heist, Northern Bank replaced its own bank notes. The robbery adversely affected the Northern Ireland peace process and hardened the relationship between the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin. Nobody has ever been held directly responsible for the robbery.