A criminal gang aborted a plot to kidnap businesswoman Norma Smurfit because they 'felt sorry' for her, a new book has claimed.
Ms Smurfit is the former wife of paper and packaging tycoon Michael Smurfit who was once the richest man in Ireland.
A new book about Dublin criminal Martin Cahill, written by his eldest daughter Frances, describes details of the kidnap plot, which probably dates to the late 1970s or early 1980s.
She said the kidnap gang was watching Ms Smurfit from her garden as she worked on her embroidery one evening.
"She cut a melancholy figure and it was decided to abort the plan. The gang felt sorry for her and they went home," says the book, Martin Cahill — My Father.
Ms Smurfit said today that she had no concerns about being kidnapped at the time, although high-profile business figures like Don Tidey and Ben Dunne had been abducted by the IRA.
"As far as I'm concerned, we didn't have any worries about that at the time. We had lots of extra security on. It's amazing that it has come up after all these years," she said.
She joked: "I didn't ever do embroidery. I did a lot of knitting in those days and I must have looked very melancholy because I had just put the four children to bed."
She added that the family home had high walls and a security man at the front gate. "We had terrific security around the house at the time. Michael also had security people around him."
"In those far off days, it was a concern for all people with a bit of money around. It never worried me. It's sad it's all being brought up again.
"It was a different era and everybody was vulnerable in those days," she told RTE radio.
Cahill, a suspect in dozens of armed robberies and under constant Garda surveillance, was gunned down in his car in Ranelagh in 1994.