Heiress turned IRA operative: the art-heist heiress who shook 1970s Britain
Rose Dugdale, born into privilege in 1941, rejected her aristocratic upbringing to join the IRA; in 1974 she helped lead one of the era’s largest art heists at the Beit family’s Russborough estate, ripping valuable paintings— including a Vermeer— from their frames before fleeing; she later became involved in IRA arms activities, was jailed, and died in March 2024 at age 83.