July 2002: The wife of a Dublin postmaster was freed unharmed after an apparently failed attempt to secure a ransom from a south Dublin post office.
September 2000: A Strabane bank official and his wife were held captive overnight by a gang which extorted a £25,000 ransom from a bank in Donegal.
February 1994: The comedian Noel V. Ginnity was tied up in his home in an attempt to extort £100,000 from a wholesale company where his daughter worked.
November 1993: The head of National Irish Bank, Mr Jim Lacey, was kidnapped and his family held captive by a gang led by the late criminal, Martin Cahill. A ransom of £243,000 was paid when Mr Lacey was driven to a branch of the bank in the centre of Dublin.
October 1987: Dublin dentist Mr John O'Grady was held for 20 days by a group including former INLA man Dessie O'Hare. He was released after the gang-leaders' arrest in a dramatic shoot-out.
April 1986: Mrs Jennifer Guinness, wife of the late banker, John Guinness, was taken from her home in Howth by kidnappers demanding £2 million. She was released after a a five-hour Garda siege at a house in Dublin 4.
December 1983: Supermarket executive, Mr Don Tidey, was kidnapped from his Dublin home. A garda and soldier were killed in the shoot-out during which he was freed in a forest in Leitrim.
October 1981: Mr Ben Dunne, the supermarket-owner, was abducted north of the Border while travelling to Newry on business. He was held for six days and released in south Armagh. Mr Dunne says he still does not know if a ransom was paid.