The wealthy English heiress who stole art for the IRA

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When she appeared in court for sentencing, she declared herself “proudly, incorruptibly guilty”. She was jailed for nine years for receiving the stolen paintings, with another nine years to run concurrently for the helicopter hijack.

During her trial, she discovered that she was pregnant. The father was Eddie Gallagher, her accomplice in both crimes. Asked by Dugdale’s biographer, Sean O’Driscoll, how their relationship developed, Gallagher said: “You know the way when you are thrown together and there is a shower of hounds chasing you to try and put you in prison, and you end up in the one bed. So what are you going to do, like? You can only talk for so long.”

Dugdale gave birth to her son, Ruairi, in Limerick Prison, and, in 1978, Dugdale and Gallagher were married in the prison chapel.

Dugdale was released in 1980 and moved to Dublin to raise her son. While her early days as an IRA wannabe may have been faintly absurd, her later years took a deadlier turn. Sean O’Driscoll, author of Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber: The Extraordinary Life of Rose Dugdale, told the BBC that there was evidence she was involved in developing IRA arms, describing how she regularly visited a County Mayo safe house where they would test weapons on the beach.