Dr. Rose Dugdale English debutante, provisional IRA member, economist, art thief and political radical has passed away aged 83.

Dugdale was known for taking part in an IRA helicopter bombing attempt at Strabane and an infamous art theft at Russborough House in Co Wicklow.

Members of Sinn Féin confirmed reports of her death earlier today and led tributes to the 83 year old.

In a statement this afternoon, Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South Central, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, extended his sympathies to the friends and family of the lifelong republican and party activist.

Mr. Ó Snodaigh described Dugdale as a “committed republican” who was “unflinching in her beliefs”.

“Ireland has today lost a committed republican and activist, and Sinn Féin a valued comrade,

Concluding Ó Snódaigh said: “Rose for many decades lived in Dublin, in the south inner-city, Drimnagh and in recent years in a nursing home in Chapelizod, and was an active member of Sinn Féin. She was extremely committed to her community, both in her work for Sinn Féin, where she was a hugely popular figure locally and nationally, but also in a wide variety of community groups".

Also adding to the tribute, Dublin Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan described Dugdale as a “true revolutionary” and someone who “dedicated her life” to Irish freedom.

Rose Dugdale grew up in an affluent household in England where her father was an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London.

She read Philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford where she became interested in civil rights and politics and later in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

After completing her studies at Oxford, she travelled to the United States attending Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she obtained a master's degree in philosophy, submitting a thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein.

She also studied at the University of London, obtaining a PhD in economics.

By 1972 she had devoted herself to helping the poor, after resigning from her job as an economist for the government, selling her house in Chelsea, and moving into a flat in Tottenham with her lover, Walter Heaton, who described himself as a "revolutionary socialist".

Dugdale cashed in her share of the family syndicate at Lloyd's, estimated to be £150,000, and distributed the money to poor people in north London.

It was around this time that Dugdale developed an interest in the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland and in 1973, Dugdale carried out a burglary on her family home in Devon, where £82,000  worth of paintings and silverware were stolen, which the proceeds of which the police believed were to be sent to fund the IRA.

Dugdale received a two year suspended sentence after she pleaded to be not guilty on grounds of coercion.

In 1974, Dugdale took part in a botched bombing attempt on Strabane RUC station where she and IRA team dropped bombs from a helicopter.

However, she is best known for her involvement in the robbery of a collection of Old Masters paintings from the Beit family at Russborough House in Co Wicklow. The collection included Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid. 

The IRA had intended to exchange the paintings for the expatriation of two IRA prisoners in England Dolores and Marian Price but the 19 paintings were recovered and Dugdale jailed.

Dugdale gave birth to a son in jail and in another high-profile case of the 1970s, her boyfriend, fellow IRA member Eddie Gallagher, kidnapped the businessman Tiede Herrema in Limerick to demand her release.

A two-week siege ensued and Gallagher and a co-kidnapper were jailed. He and Dugdale married in Limerick Jail in 1978 where they were both prisoners.

Dugdale was released two years later.

In her later years Dugdale lived in Dublin and worked in adult education.

In 2012, Dugdale’s story featured in a six-party TG4 documentary series on women in the IRA, Mná an IRA.

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