Aristocrat and IRA member Dugdale laid to rest
FORMER Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and several party colleagues were among those in attendance at the funeral of Rose Dugdale yesterday, the English aristocrat who led a notorious IRA art heist.
Mourners were told that the disinherited heiress, who died earlier this month aged 82, had no regrets about turning her back on a life of privilege.
At the close of her cremation service in Dublin, the curtains were drawn across her coffin to the soundtrack of the Pet Shop Boys hit It’s A Sin.
Her son Ruairí Gallagher joined her partner and republican colleague Jim Monaghan at the funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery, north Dublin. Addressing the service from his wheelchair, Mr Monaghan described his partner as a ‘force of nature’ and an ‘all rounder in revolution, politics and education’.
‘Rose was a woman of many talents, she was well known as an IRA volunteer but she also taught economics and politics and sometimes a bit of philosophy,’ he said.
Earlier the coffin had been draped in the Tricolour as it was carried towards the Crematorium Chapel, led by a lone piper. The former IRA prisoner’s death came just days before a film about her life, Baltimore, was released in cinemas.
The rebellious former debutante from Devon joined the IRA in the 1970s and was the ringleader of the 1974 IRA raid on the Russborough House estate in Co. Wicklow, in which 19 valuable paintings were stolen.
The Oxford graduate was involved in other IRA operations during the Troubles, including a failed bid to drop bombs on to a police station in Strabane in Co. Tyrone, using a helicopter hijacked in Co. Donegal. The republican bombmaker was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for her IRA activities. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to Ruairí inside Limerick prison.
Ms Dugdale had been living in a care home in Dublin in recent years. Mr Monaghan thanked the staff at the care home for everything they had done in caring for his partner. Former Sinn Féin Assembly member and MEP Martina Anderson presided over the service and said her friend had a ‘pivotal role’ in the republican movement. ‘I stand here with a sore yet proud heart reminded of the remarkable journey I and so many others shared together with Rose in the depths of the Irish republican struggle,’ she said.
Ms Anderson added: ‘Rose’s legacy will forever be intertwined with the tapestry of Ireland’s fight for freedom.’
Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh delivered the eulogy. ‘Rose was an enigma to the establishment, they couldn’t and can’t still grasp that somebody could turn their back on privilege in order to help the masses,’ he said.
‘If they had spent any time with Rose they would have come away with a clear understanding of how her passion, her drive to help the oppressed, her determination to rebalance the world order was Rose literally putting her money where her mouth was.
A tribute from Ruairí was read by her long-time friend and republican colleague Marion Coyle at the end of the service.
‘You will always live on in our hearts and never be forgotten – I love you ma,’ he stated.