A heavily armed gang get away with at least £100,000 in a raid on the post office in Tallaght village, Dublin.
In a well planned robbery, eight men raided the post office on Main Street in Tallaght village as staff were preparing to pay unemployment benefit. Four of the men, masked and armed, entered the post office and held up the post office employees present. Staff were ordered to lie on the floor in a corner and warned not to move.
Post office employee Tony O'Connor recalls there was a lot of shouting when the gang entered the post office,
Three of them jumped over the counters and emptied the drawers in the office and then went into the inner office and cleaned out the whole office more or less.
As far as he could see all of the raiders were very well armed,
One or two had shotguns and there was a handgun involved.
The gang members waiting outside had a machine gun and an Armalite rifle. They shot at Garda Kevin Morrissey who arrived at the scene on motorbike while on routine patrol. He escaped uninjured.
Detective Garda Noel While chased a Volvo car the raiders used in their getaway along the Tallaght by-pass. The raiders hampered his pursuit by throwing a smoke bomb at his vehicle.
Both the getaway cars were later found abandoned in Glenshane Drive about 2 miles from the robbery scene.
A spokesperson for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs confirmed at least £100,000 was taken in the post office raid.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 21 August 1982. The reporter is Mary Fanning.
