Republican family gather for sentimental send-off for debutante turned IRA bomber

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

They had to wait for the funeral in front to clear before their service – the last in a crowded schedule could begin

For some of the grizzled veterans of the armed struggle in attendance, it must have felt like old times.

But on this occasion it was a sentimental send-off for one of their own: Rose Dugdale, the IRA bombmaker whose criminal exploits in the name of Irish freedom cemented her place as a heroine of the republican movement.

She should never have been one of their own, a point made on numerous occasions at her funeral service in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery yesterday. But Dugdale was their high society Provo, the Chelsea heiress who became radicalised and joined the IRA.

Milk-churn bombs dropped from a helicopter; improvised armour rocket launchers packed with digestive biscuits to absorb the recoil; explosions in the City of London which killed five people, including a 15-year-old girl; a multimillion pound art heist carried out by an armed gang – presumably all part of what former Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson described as “the tapestry of Irish freedom” in which “Rose’s legacy will be forever intertwined”.

There was a very large turnout from the “republican family” for the funeral of the lifelong revolutionary who died earlier this month in a Dublin nursing home aged 82.

Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was prominent among the mourners and was greeted warmly by veteran party members and a large number of the party’s TDs.

But there was a no show from his successor Mary Lou McDonald and her senior Dáil spokespeople. Nortrhern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill was also absent.

A piper waited for the arrival of the remains as two women in high-vis jackets circulated, handing out Easter lilies to mourners who forgot to wear them.

It was bitterly cold in the graveyard, but a sizeable number of the men in attendance wore short black bomber jackets, white shirts, black ties and black trousers. They were joined by women in similar attire, but their black jackets were more tailored.

A burst of music from the piper heralded the arrival of the hearse. A spray of white Easter lilies rested on the Tricolour-draped wicker coffin. A wreath of green, white and orange carnations studded with more Easter lilies was carried into the chapel.

The bearer party for the coffin set off slowly, black suited marshals wearing Tricolour armbands walking alongside them, as the onlookers respectfully applauded.

Dugdale’s partner, Jim Monaghan, who worked with...