Norn Iron is back in the news for all the bad reasons-this time a £20 million bank robbery in the Northern Bank. Thank goodness I ran down my Northern Bank account some years ago-there may be a very small balance and the NB is welcome to it to help out with salaries over Christmas if they are that strapped. But why keep so much money in actual specie? Anyhow we are to look out for criminals splashing money around. A conspicuous sight that will be as Ulster folk part with cash very very reluctantly so someone waving £100 notes around will be noticeable.
They need not bother trying to use Ulster cash across the water. It is bad enough trying to have Scottish Bank notes accepted south of the border but Norn Iron money is as much use as Monopoly notes. And indeed the Northern Bank notes with bits of plasticy see through bits is particularity Third World. So it is only here that they can have any hope of spreading it around and it will have to be in very small denominations for humdrum items. It would take a lot of time to spend £20M in Pound Stretcher or even Safeways. If it is a Para Military gang they could arrange for every member to spend say £100 per night per pub until the new year. But these gangs are very small and one mistake-going into a Protestant Pub (assuming this is the IRA we are talking about) with the cash and their cover is blown with all the Orange customers-off duty members of the Police Service of Norn Iron to a man. The old Prod Pub down at the Harbour -some 199 years old and closed for the past few months has suddenly reopened. How it makes money is a puzzle-it can take 6 customers (or 5 with the door closed). It actually reopened on the night of the bank heist-so are we looking for a Loyalist Gang? That's a thought.
