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Irish minister held at gunpoint in robbery

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-16 09:30

DUBLIN - Ireland's Europe Minister Dick Roche recounted Monday how he was held at gunpoint during a dramatic armed raid on a hotel south of Dublin.

Dick Roche

Three men, one armed with a sawed-off shotgun, held Roche along with another guest and some seven staff hostage at the Marriott Hotel in Druids Glen in County Wicklow, police said.

Roche said he been at the hotel to have his usual morning swim when he was confronted outside by the three balaclava-clad raiders, while he believed a fourth remained in the getaway car.

"It was obvious they weren't constituents coming calling. One of them had a gun," he said, hours after the raid at the hotel in Roche's constituency of Wicklow, where the former university lecturer was elected a lawmaker in 1987.

"They clearly thought that I was bringing money from the hotel to the bank. When they discovered they had the wrong man they decided to march myself and the chap who was driving me into the hotel," he told RTE state radio.

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And he added: "Initially when I turned around and I saw a gun pointed at me I didn't know what the heck was going on because I wouldn't be worth robbing and I didn't have any top secret papers.

"I was wondering was this some sort of political event but as soon as they started asking for money I knew it was a robbery."

He had spoken to the raiders -- who had not recognised him and were unaware they were holding a government minister -- and tried to calm things down as staff were shocked and terrified.

Roche and staff were brought to the hotel's strong room where the men cleared out the safe and locked them in.

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