Sunday 19th December 2004 several groups of armed men called at the homes of two officials of the Northern Bank, one in Downpatrick in County Down, the other in Poleglass, near Belfast.

Dressed as police officers, they entered the homes and held the officials and their families at gunpoint. Bank official Chris Ward was taken from Poleglass to Downpatrick, the home of his supervisor Kevin McMullan, while gunmen remained at his home with his family.  Mr McMullan's wife was taken from their home and held, also at gunpoint, at an unknown location. The following day both officials were instructed to report for work at the bank's headquarters at Belfast's Donegall Square West as normal. They did so, and remained at work after the close of business, and later in the evening they let the other gang members in.

The robbers entered the bank's cash handling and storage area. This held an unusually large amount of cash, in preparation for distribution to cash machines for the busy Christmas shopping period. Cash was transferred to one or several vehicles (possibly including a white "Luton" van) the gang than ran off. Shortly before midnight the gang holding the Ward family left, and those holding Mrs McMullan released her in a forest near Ballynahinch.

The haul included £10m of new Northern Bank sterling banknotes, £5.5m of used Northern Bank sterling notes, £4.5m of circulated sterling notes issued by other banks, and small amounts of other currencies, mainly Euros and American Dollars.

when Interviewed after the bank raid,  experts said that taking the Northern Bank notes was very foolish, as, apart from some tourist destinations, they were essentially useless outside of Ireland and Scotland, and that anyone attempting to pass them in Ireland would quickly arouse suspicion.

After the raid, the Northern Bank announced that it would recall all £300 million worth of its banknotes in denominations of £10 or more, and reissue them in different colours with a new logo and new prefixes to the serial numbers. The first of these new notes entered circulation on March 11, 2005.

17th February 2005 the Irish police - the Gardaí  - announced that it had arrested seven people and recovered over £2 million, including £60,000 in Northern Bank notes, during raids in the Cork and Dublin areas, as part of ongoing investigations into money laundering.

The Gardaí did not officially confirm that the raids were related to the Northern Bank robbery, but made the arrests under the Offences Against the State Act, the republic's chief anti-terrorism law. Those arrested were reported to include several men from Derry and a former Sinn Féin councillor. A suspected Real IRA member was arrested at Heuston Station, along with two others. Money to the sum of €94,000 was found in their vehicle, in a washing powder box. One of the men, Don Bullman from Cork, was charged on February 18 at the Special Criminal Court with IRA membership.

18th February 2005 The Gardaí in Passage West arrested a man found to be attempting to burn sterling banknotes.Two men in Dublin were released from questioning, as was the Sinn Féin member in Cork.

A top Irish businessman and associate of the Taoiseach, Phil Flynn, stepped down from a number of positions pending the outcome of a Gardaí investigation into Chesterton Finance, of which he is a non-executive director. He stepped down as chairman of a government body overseeing decentralisation, as well as giving up a position on the board of VHI and as chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland)

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) recovered £50,000 in unused Northern banknotes at Newforge Country Club, a sports and social club in Belfast for off-duty and retired police officers, owned by the PSNI's Athletic Association. The PSNI stated it was a diversion, but it wasbeing investigated.

19th February 2005 Police confirm that the money found at the Newforge Country Club was part of the £26 million from the bank robbery.

On 12 October 2005  The Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy told a law enforcement conference in Dublin that he was satisfied that the money recovered in Cork in February came from the Northern Bank robbery.

2nd November 2005  the PSNI arrested two men in Kilcoo, County Down, as part of a pre-planned operation in connection with the robbery. Sinn Féin's Willie Clarke said that the two arrested men were not members of his party.

3rd November 2005 three more people were arrested in Belfast, Dungannon and Coalisland, bringing the total number of people arrested during the operation to five. All five were questioned in the PSNI's Serious Crime Suite in Antrim police station.

4th November 2005  Dominic McEvoy, a 23-year-old builder among those arrested in Kilcoo, appeared in a Belfast court charged in connection with the robbery.

The charges were: false imprisonment of bank official Kevin McMullan and his wife; possession of a firearm with intent to commit a crime; and the robbery itself.

The court was told by the prosecution that McEvoy's DNA was found on a hat left at the McMullan house. McEvoy denied any involvement in the robbery, and denied that he was a member of the Provisional IRA.

7th November 2005  Martin McAliskey, a 42-year-old Coalisland man, was charged with making false statements to police in relation to a white Ford Transit van allegedly used in the robbery.

8th November 2005  a third man was charged in relation to the robbery. He was accused of collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists and having documents likely to be of use to terrorists. Charges were quietly dropped against this individual on the day the Queen visited Belfast.

29th November 2005 police investigating the raid arrested Chris Ward and searched his home. They also confirmed that another bank employee, an unnamed 23 year old woman, was also arrested on the same day.

2nd December 2005 PSNI raided Casement Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Belfast, and the related Social Club.
 

7th December 2005 Chris Ward, one of the Northern Bank employees whose family was held hostage, was charged with the robbery. Belfast Magistrates' Court was told that the prosecution case was based on Ward's actions in the days preceding and during the raid, and a suspicious work rota, as well as discrepancies in Ward's original statements to police.

Ward denied the charge and said that police had harassed him and his family in an attempt to frame him. He also complained that he had been held in police custody for an unprecedented eight days under the Criminal Justice Act before being charged.

3rd January 2007 All charges against Dominic McEvoy and Martin McAliskey were dropped by the Public Prosecution Service. Hugh Orde describes the developments as a setback. Chris Ward is remanded on bail until 31 January, when he will appear before the court again.

October 2007 A date of September 2008 was set for the trial of Chris Ward, in connection with the robbery. He is charged with robbery and two further charges of false imprisonment

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