Book review: From podcast to page... unmasking the real story of Northern Bank heist

On December 20, 2004, one paramilitary group — most likely the IRA — robbed the Northern Bank in Belfast stealing £26.5m

Glenn Patterson reveals full background of the Northern Bank raid.

• The Northern Bank Job: The Heist and How They Got Away With It 
• Glenn Patterson 
• Head of Zeus Ltd, €18.99

The nationalist and loyalist communities of Northern Ireland lived in an uneasy and violent world since the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969. 

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 gave these communities new hope for a better life. 

It is no surprise, therefore, that in the subsequent years the paramilitary armies rooted in the nationalist and unionist communities felt discommoded and threatened.

The paramilitary violent acts and bank raids continued after the Agreement but now international public opinion was highlighting and condemning their beatings, raids, and murders.

On December 20, 2004, one paramilitary group — most likely the IRA (although this was never proven) — robbed the Northern Bank in Belfast. 

It must have taken a year to prepare for the raid because the execution of the plan was meticulous.

This bank raid, which garnered £26.5m, is the subject of Glenn Patterson’s latest book. He followed the fallout of the raid from the start. 

In 2008, he sat through the four weeks of the trial of the only person who was charged with being part of the raid — safe keyholder Chris Ward. 

That trial collapsed when it became obvious that the prosecution had nothing more than circumstantial evidence against Ward.

Despite this, enough background emerged to give Patterson material for a film script. 

The film never got off the ground but Patterson was able to convert it into a podcast series for BBC Sounds in 2021 and now this book.

The events of the Northern Bank raid begin on Sunday night, December 19, 2004, at the homes of Kevin McMullan and Chris Ward, the two designated safe keyholders at the Northern Bank for the next day. 

McMullan’s wife, Kyran, was taken hostage. Four members of the Ward family — Chris’s parents, his brother Gerard, and Gerard’s girlfriend Ursula — were also taken hostage.

The two keyholders were advised to go to work as normal on Monday and to cooperate if they wanted to see their family members alive again.

The events of December 20 are remarkable because they are so mundane. 

Maybin Support Services, the security firm hired by the bank, had been instructed to reduce their costs. They did this to great effect. 

As a result, the entire raid was carried out without a hitch. The raiders returned for a second truckful of cash.

Once the raiders left with the £26.5m, the keyholders went home. Ward was reunited with his family immediately. McMullan’s wife, although unharmed, wound up in hospital with hypothermia.

From this point onward, the book loses some of its focus. 

Patterson draws on material from other events to explain his theories, including the Robert McCartney murder, the Notarantonio family killing, IRA leader Bobby Storey’s role in the H Block escape of 1983, and the world financial crash of 2008. 

Each of these stories is interesting in its own right but the inference and evidence that Patterson draws from them are like the charges in the Ward trial: circumstantial.

To this day, Ward (acquitted) is the only person north of the border to have faced any charges for robbing the Northern Bank.

In the Republic, Ted Cunningham Sr, a man with strong republican connections, was convicted of playing a role in dispersing the cash.

Patterson has remained faithful to the text of his podcast series of 2021 for much of the book. 

Having listened to the podcasts, his text in the podcast medium is very effective. 

However, the asides and comments which enhance the podcast often serve to distract the flow of the story when reading.

It is Patterson’s contention that the IRA raided the Northern Bank, not to provide a pension fund for its volunteers as many believe but simply because they could. 

The raid was a reminder from them to the authorities that, while they may have been discommoded from their ‘normal’ state of self-rule, ‘they hadn’t gone away’.

Patterson also believes that the entire episode was an embarrassment to the authorities and, because of this, solving the case was never vigorously pursued. 

Having read the book, it is hard to disagree with this theory.

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