Rose Dugdale, the former IRA member who became infamous for her criminal activities, passed away at the age of 82 on Monday, March 18. Dugdale, born in Devon, England, abandoned her privileged upbringing to join the ranks of the Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s, when the conflict in Northern Ireland was escalating.
Dugdale’s transformation from a wealthy heiress to a radical activist began during her time at Oxford University, where she studied Economics and became involved in protests against male-only institutions. She later became associated with communism and met Walter Heaton, a former British Army soldier, who further radicalized her.
In 1973, Dugdale and Heaton were arrested for stealing valuable items from Dugdale’s family estate in Devon. This incident exposed their connections to the IRA, leading to Dugdale’s involvement in supporting the organization’s activities, including the attempted bombing of a police station in Strabane in 1974.
One of Dugdale’s most notorious crimes was the theft of valuable artworks from Russborough House in Ireland, where she posed as a French tourist and, accompanied by IRA gunmen, stole paintings worth millions of dollars. Dugdale’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment shed light on her involvement in the IRA’s activities.
After serving a nine-year sentence for her crimes, Dugdale moved to Dublin to raise her son and continued to collaborate with the IRA. Her death has sparked mixed reactions, with some praising her as a committed activist and others condemning her as a terrorist. Despite the controversies surrounding her actions, Dugdale’s legacy as a former IRA member continues to generate debate in the United Kingdom.