Two men were shot and a gunman escaped following a bank robbery on Dorset Street in Dublin.
At about 2.30 pm, an armed raid was carried out at the Bank of Ireland branch off on Dorset Street, Dublin.
A man described as 19 or 20 held staff at gunpoint, then fled with two bags of money.
The raider made his escape through laneways in the direction of Eccles Street. A CIÉ bus conductor, Tony McMahon, tried to stop the man at Nelson Street and was shot in the stomach. The gunman then ran up Berkeley Lane behind St Joseph's Church.
The bank's administration officer Eddie Coleman had guessed the raider's escape route and followed him up the lane in his car. At this point, the bank robber discovered that he had hit a dead end. He ran back up the lane and into Brown's cabinet making factory. It was at the factory that he was confronted by Eddie Coleman. The gunman fired one shot hitting Eddie Coleman in the groin. The robber then tried to escape in Mr Coleman's car but did not have the keys.
He panicked, dropped the two bags of money and fled through the grounds of the church.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 26 August 1977. The reporter is Ronnie Turner.
