The Sallins Train Robbery occurred on 31 March 1976 when the Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

 to Dublin mail train was robbed near Sallins

Sallins

Sallins is a suburban town in County Kildare, Ireland, situated 3.5 km north of the town centre of Naas, from which it is separated by the M7 motorway. Sallins is the anglicised name of Na Solláin which means "The Willows"....

 in County Kildare

County Kildare

County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. Approximately IR£

Irish pound

The Irish pound was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £...

 200,000 was stolen. Five members of the IRSP

Irish Republican Socialist Party

The Irish Republican Socialist Party or IRSP is a republican socialist party active in Ireland. It claims the legacy of socialist revolutionary James Connolly, who founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896 and was executed after the Easter Rising of 1916.- History :The Irish Republican...

: Osgur Breatnach, Nicky Kelly

Nicky Kelly

Nicky Kelly is an Irish politician from Arklow in County Wicklow. In the 1980s he achieved fame throughout Ireland after he had been sentenced, in 1978, to 12 years in prison for his alleged part in the Sallins train robbery. The ensuing campaign to release him became a symbol of the 1980s with...

, Brian McNally, Michael Plunkett and John Fitzpatrick were arrested in connection with the robbery.

After the failure of the authorities to produce a "book of evidence" against them, the four were released but were immediately rearrested.