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And, of course, there was the struggle for the liberation of Northern Ireland from British colonial rule-the struggle that would become more important to Rose Dugdale than any other cause, or person, in her life.ĭugdale was unusually earnest in her revolutionary activism. There was the women’s liberation movement, which had started at around the time of Rose’s own ideological awakening in the late 1960s, and from the rejection of societal expectations as a young aristocrat to challenging dress codes at Oxford to taking the lead in militant operations in a way few women of her day dared, Rose reflected that movement in the most radical ways. Dugdale would test these waters, especially in her open relationship with a married man to whom she provided financial support and engaged in a sort of domestic ménage à trois.

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There was sexual liberation, with free love and changes in age-old gender roles. The Black Power movement would capture Dugdale’s attention throughout her life. Hamilton had recently published Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, examining systemic racism in the United States and proposing a liberation from the preexisting order in the country. Similarly, the Black Power movement was on the rise, and Kwame Ture (the former Stokely Carmichael) and Charles V. Liberation theology was emerging in Latin America, a symbiosis of Marxist socioeconomics and Christian thought meant to combat greed and thus, liberate the impoverished from their oppressors. Hers was also an era of liberation, in its many manifestations. The antiwar movement, assassinations and riots in the United States, massive student protests in major cities in Europe, civil wars from Guatemala to Ethiopia, a recent revolution in Cuba, a coup in Portugal, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland- these were the fires burning around the world, and she studied all of them. The ethical decisions she made during her life were her own, formed after years of intense study in universities and on the ground, from Cuba to Belfast. For these and other crimes, she carries no regrets or remorse and offers no alibis. No woman before her or since has ever committed anything resembling the art thefts for which she served as mastermind, leader, and perpetrator. She was media gold, having abandoned a life of wealth and leisure to take up arms in operations that would almost certainly, if not intentionally, lead her to prison.ĭugdale was also a radical, not just politically but criminally. Her criminality, combined with her lineage, her degree from Oxford, and her doctorate in economics, made her a curiosity to journalists not only in Ireland and Britain but in North America as well. At the same time, she was generous, articulate, and unquestionably bright. Fiery, bold, and brash, she defied the conventions of her birth and of her gender in everything from action to attire.

When Rose Dugdale became international news in the mid-1970s, she emerged as an emblem of the times.