Madam, - Amid all the discussion about the Northern Bank raid and the supposed involvement of the IRA, it is instructive to learn that a precedent was set by the IRA as far back as 1919 for the detection and prosecution of bank robbers.
In November of that year, according to a newly published biography entitled The Real Chief Liam Lynch, by Meda Ryan, two Cork bank officials were robbed by armed and masked men. Although the British claimed that this action was carried out by members of Sinn Féin, Liam Lynch, then O/C of the Cork No.2 Brigade, requested that all local IRA officers co-operate in an effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.
By April 1920, the criminals had been discovered and most of the money recovered.
That same month, warrants were issued by the "Republican police force" to arrest those who had carried out the robbery.
Seven out of the 10 gang members were duly tried and sentenced at a special court presided over by Liam Lynch.
Meda Ryan writes that Lynch "had demonstrated the integrity of the Republican army and its ability to detect and to punish wrongdoers" and that his action had also "raised the prestige of the whole organisation and set an example which put an effective end to similar acts of crime". - Yours, etc.,
FRANK BOUCHIER-HAYES, Gortboy, Newcastle West, Co Limerick.