A first edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, stolen from Armagh Public Library 20 months ago, has returned safely following a joint RUC-Garda operation.
Gardai in Dublin handed over the volume, which contains hand-written annotations by the author, to the Church of Ireland Dean of Armagh and keeper of the library, the Very Rev Herbert Cassidy, who said he was "absolutely delighted that Gulliver has finally come home again".
Praising the joint police investigation, Dean Cassidy said he had almost given up hope. "I was beginning to lose hope. After all, the book was stolen in December 1999 and some of the items that went astray in the same robbery have long since been recovered.
"Frankly speaking, given the book's special characteristics, it was logical to assume that its disappearance was the result of a `robbery-to-order' leading to it disappearing for good in some private collection."
In the 1999 robbery, a member of the library's staff was held at gunpoint by two intruders. Two £50,000 silver maces stolen were recovered on a footpath close to Balbriggan Garda station in north Co Dublin several days later.
Dean Cassidy said the book was in good condition. "The fact that it hasn't suffered unduly would to me again be evidence that the people behind the robbery would have known exactly what they had in their hands."
Dean Cassidy said detectives told him they were optimistic about recovering the remaining items - a miniature Koran, a Papal Bull by Clement XII and a thumb Bible.