‘IMMEDIATE ARREST’ 

Victims campaigner says cops should nab ex-IRA bombmaker after ‘romanticised’ book claim

• 16:43, 24 Jun 2022
• Updated: 19:12, 24 Jun 2022

FORMER paramilitaries will be able to “wax lyrical” about their crimes under UK Government legacy proposals, a victims’ champion has said.

Kenny Donaldson hit out after revelations that London society heiress Rose Dugdale made IRA bombs that took lives.

The book, ‘Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber,’ tells how the daughter of a millionaire insurance underwriter turned her back on the good life.

Instead she helped raise money for the IRA before moving onto making lethal devices.

One bomb she constructed is said to have been used in an attack on the Baltic Exchange in 1992, which left three people dead.

Another was used to attack London’s Docklands in 1996, killing two people, after the IRA ceasefire broke down.

And Sean O’Driscoll’s book with now 80-year-old Dugdale also says she was also responsible for a 2,500 lb bomb used in an attack on an Armagh barracks in 1991.

Three soldiers died in that attack which Dugdale said involved the biggest bomb ever built during the Troubles.

Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United said many more will feel “emboldened to wax lyrical about their involvement in violence” if the Legacy Bill, granting immunity from prosecution for Troubles crimes, becomes law.

He said Ms Dugdale should be “immediately arrested” given her claims of “involvement in the making of bombs which lead to the murders of people, security forces and civilians.

“How much more of this are we likely to witness should the current Legacy Bill be implemented in legislation in its current form? 

“If immunity is granted to offenders there is nothing stopping such individuals from following the lead of Rose Dugdale. 

“Terrorists will be emboldened to wax lyrical about their involvement in violence, painted as some form of romanticised resistance against tyranny”.

He said Ms Dugdale “is certainly no hero” and her life story does nothing but “dance on the graves of innocent victims.”

During her time with the IRA, Dugdale stole from her family home to help fund her fight for the republican movement.

She went on to carry out the first major raid on Russborough House in County Wicklow stealing a number of paintings, including one by Dutch master Vermeer valued in the millions.

The Englishwoman was jailed in Limerick for her part in the art robbery.