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Dublin, IRELAND - At 10.30AM on Friday 03rd April 1970 an alarm went off in the Central Detective Unit, Dublin Castle. The alarm wires of the Royal Bank of Ireland, Arran Quay, had been cut on a pole in Stable Lane, at the rear of the Bank.

Three men, dressed in battle dress, entered the Bank and one of them shouted; "This is a stick-up".

As the Manager, Stanley Keegan, pressed the alarm one of the raiders vaulted the counter and grabbed about £2,000 from a cashier's desk. The whole operation took less than three minutes. The nearest squad car, driven by Garda Pat Hunter, was in North King Street. Garda Hunter, with his colleagues Dick Fallon and Paul Firth sped to Arran Quay and arrived at the Bank while the raiders were still inside.

Garda Firth later said; "We pulled up outside the Bank and everything seemed quiet. He (Dick) was still on the right hand side as we approached the steps of the Bank. Three men came out of the Bank and they were carrying some bags. They were armed with revolvers. We were about three feet away from them when they just opened fire on us".

43-year-old Garda Fallon, from Moneen, Co. Roscommon, followed the raiders up a laneway and was fatally wounded in the head. Eyewitnesses said that the raiders (five men in all) escaped in two cars, a gold coloured Cortina GT and a Volkswagen. The greatest manhunt of the decade was mounted and the Government offered a £5,000 reward

The issue of the Garda Review for May 1970 described Dick Fallon as,"... an outstanding policeman. The heroic manner of his death proves this and ensures also that his name and his bravery will be prominently stamped in the history of the Garda Siochana for ever."

The Gardai took the unprecedented step of publishing a list of men that they wished to interview. The Sunday Press of 05th April carried the names of seven men and on Tuesday 07th April an Irish Independent article quoted Gardai as saying "The killers are hiding some place near Dublin and will have to surface within the next few days".

On Thursday 16th April, in Dail Eireann, Mr. Gerry L'Estrange T.D. asked the Minister for Justice?"Is the Minister further aware that on the evening of the Wicklow bank robbery the Garda authorities knew where these six men were"?

There is no indication in Dail records that Mr. O Morain made any reply.

On Wednesday 29th April detectives from Dublin Castle headed for West Wicklow.

A subsequent news report read: "... Chief superintendent John Fleming led a mixed force of his own heavily armed Special Branch Detectives and local uniformed Gardai into a galvanized-roofed two roomed cottage in remote West-Wicklow, used from time to time as a hide-out by seven wanted men... all wanted for questioning about the murder of Garda Dick Fallon. The raiding party was wryly amused by what they found lying on the floor... Some of the residents had been studying detective methods. Their reading matter included at least one copy of the American magazine 'True Detective'. Also found in the cottage were items of clothing and other things indicating that it possibly had been used as a cache by an illegal organisation. Some of the clothing was of an army type".

The officers from Dublin Castle established that seven men had rented the cottage in October 1969, at £3 per week from Jim Browe. They told Mr. Browe that they were students and were working at night for Telefis Eireann on Kippure.

A number of armed men dressed as Irish soldiers carried out a daring raid on a branch of the Hibernian Bank in Rathdrum, County Wicklow on Thursday 20th February 1970. It was assumed that the same gang had carried out the Arran Quay raid. They stayed in the cottage on the night of Sunday 05th April but did not return after that.

On Monday 04th May 1970 Michael O'Morain, Minister for Justice, resigned. Kevin Boland T.D. alleged that the resignation had been "requested" by An Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.

A few weeks before his resignation Mr. O'Morain had walked out of a dinner, given to honour the Irish Bar by the Advocate Society of Ontario. He objected to a remark made by the President of the Society, Mr. Joseph Sedgwick. Mr. Sedgwick was speaking about Serjeant Sullivan an Irish Barrister, involved in the defence of Roger Casement and the last holder of the legal title "His Majesty's Serjeant at Law". It didn't suit Mr. O Morain. He had also been in a continuous tangle with Telefis Eireann about a "Bank Robbers" programme in the "Seven-Days" series, which was cancelled at a late stage.

Another "Lacken connection" then came to light: Mr. O Morain had received a complaint from the Lacken Fianna Fail Cumann Secretary about his wrongful arrest and unlawful detention at Blessington Garda station on Tuesday 04th November 1969. The man claimed he had been accused of a crime that hadn't been committed BY ANYONE, yet Sergeant O'Sullivan had told him "I have enough evidence here to charge you". He asked Minister O'Morain to hold an enquiry into his treatment only to receive a reply from the Castlebar TD telling him "There is nothing to corroborate your story". The complainant lived only five hundred yards from Jim Browe's cottage.

A Taoiseach announced at 02:45hrs on 06th May his decision to dismiss Ministers Haughey and Blaney. The shock was: "All the greater because it is so unbelievable; because it gives body and substance to the waves of rumour that have been circulating here since the Six Counties trouble last Summer and all the talk about the involvement of some Ministers in the events there."

The Taoiseach "... repudiated the suggestion that no attempt had been made by the Government or any of it's members to pursue the hunt for the perpetrators of that foul deed" (The shooting of Garda Fallon).

Transfers, from Blessington, were proposed for Sergeant Maurice O' Sullivan and three of his married subordinates. The order was based on the allegation that it was due to their incompetence that a number of wanted men evaded detection in Jim Browe's cottage.

Sergeant O' Sullivan told reporters: "... months ago my request for extra men, so that I could adequately police my district, was refused"

A petition to oppose the transfer was organised, by an outsider, in Lacken and the surrounding areas.

The proposed transfer of the three Gardai; William Nash, from Gurtnacrehy, Co.Limerick, Patrick Browne, from Kenmare, Co.Kerry and William Tighe, from Kilmorgan, Co. Sligo, was cancelled. On 01st September 1970 Sergeant Maurice O'Sullivan, an ex-Mental nurse, from Slaheny, Co Kerry, took up duty at Coolock Garda Station; his third transfer since he was promoted Sergeant on 16th July 1965.

Slowly things returned to normal in Lacken. The presence of unmarked Garda-cars and the crackle of walkie-talkies gradually died away.

On Thursday 14th May one of the men named by Gardai was arrested in London. Charges were subsequently brought against him and he was acquitted.

Ministers Haughey and Blaney were charged in "The Arms Trial" and acquitted.

Thirty-seven years on, nobody has been convicted of the deed, which ensured that Dick Fallon would not, in his retirement, stroll through the fields of his native Moneen, Co. Roscommon.

Dick Fallon's son, Finian, claims that there was a Government cover-up at the time of his father's murder and has now asked the Irish Minister for Justice to hold an enquiry.

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[AUTHOR'S NOTEI am indebted to the staff of Garda Siochana archives, Rocord Tower, Dublin Castle, for the source material for this article. - Mattie Lennon.]