Hidden treasure in bank vault found by hound

Call for forgotten deposits to be opened

AN AMERICAN sniffer dog led to the recovery of historic artefacts in Irish banks, a Dáil committee heard yesterday.

Campaigner Jim Connolly, who is calling for the opening of forgotten safety deposit boxes – currently lying unopened in bank vaults across the country, some of them for centuries – said the dog was attracted by the smell of gunpowder in a 100-year-old pistol stored with other treasures in a vault.

Wealthy aristocrats sent such treasures to banks for safekeeping but many of their families are unaware the valuables are there.

Mr Connolly told TDs at a hearing yesterday: ‘President Clinton was over here in 1995 and was going to address a crowd from the Bank of Ireland in College Green. The secret service, besides welding shut manhole covers, inspecting sewers and removing bins, had a look in the vault of the bank where he would be speaking.

‘There was a chest there, like something you would see on the back of the Titanic, with a huge belt around it. It had been placed there at the turn of the century, 1905, I believe.

‘The dog took issue with the chest and it had to be opened. So as a courtesy to the secret service, that was done after 90 years. Inside was war memorabilia – a number of swords, one with a jewelencrusted butt, together with a loaded pistol.

‘It was the gunpowder in the loaded pistol which the dog had picked up on. That gives you a flavour of the richness of the history that this stuff represents.’

The rural affairs committee is considering opening long-abandoned safety deposits in banks and adding their contents to the cultural and heritage wealth of the country, where appropriate.

Mr Connolly said he had personally been told the sniffer dog story by a Bank of Ireland official in the College Green vault. He believes the pistol was handed over to gardaí but is ‘99% certain’ the gem-studded sword was returned to the chest.

He said some boxes have been there for more than 200 years.

Fine Gael TD Joe Carey, chairman of the committee, said: ‘We are considering the merits of potential legislative and regulatory remedies to balance the interests of consumer protection, the right to private property, and the common good.’

Artefacts could be transferred to State ownership or sold at auction, allowing for redress at a later stage for anyone with proven descent and arguable entitlement.

Mr Connolly, a former Bank of Ireland official, said: ‘I have seen paintings that are so large they are held in pallets. I have seen single envelopes inscribed with the words “to be opened on my death” – which could contain someone’s last will and testament, or a deed, or a confession, or a share certificate, who knows?

‘I have seen currency, antiques, weapons and war memorabilia. Even Charlie McCreevy speculated in the original debates on the Dormant Deposit legislation that banks could be holding the proceeds of bank robberies in their own safes.’

He agreed it was possible that the Irish Crown Jewels, stolen in 1907 and never recovered, could be lying undisturbed in a basement, even if entered as something else. Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív said: ‘For all we know there could be a Caravaggio or a Rubens there. It’d be a pity not to know.’

Mr Connolly said: ‘It is clear there needs to be some form of legal impetus compelling banks to act… the most appropriate instrument to use is the Dormant Deposit Act.’

Boxes unopened for over 200 years