'I would have signed up for the IRA,' says American femme fatale Rose McGowan

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Rose McGowan today in Toronto

Hollywood actress Rose McGowan has claimed she would have been an IRA terrorist if she had lived through the Troubles.

Rose, who has an Irish father, stars in Fifty Dead Men Walking, a film based on the memoirs of a spy who infiltrated the IRA in the 1980s.

'I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 per cent have been in the IRA,' she said.

'My heart just broke for the cause. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it.'

Her comments at the Toronto Film Festival have angered Martin McGartland, the book's author, who said: 'She must have taken leave of her senses.

'Rose McGowan's comments were insulting to victims of IRA terrorism and she should aoplogise. It's easy to say this sort of thing when you live in LA.'

Rose plays an IRA femme fatale in the film, which co-stars Sir Ben Kingsley and rising British star Jim Sturgess.

It has already caused controversy as Mr McGartland attempted to block its release, at one stage threatening to sue the British and Canadian producers for distorting his story.

But following last-ditch negotiations this week, which included a £20,000 payment, the former spy now says he is happy with the film.

He first came to the attention of the RUC through his involvement in petty crime and began working for them as an IRA informer, under the code name Agent Carol.

His cover was blown in 1991 and he was abducted, only escaping execution by leaping from a third floor window. He moved to England and lived under an assumed identity, but was later exposed. In 1999, he was tracked to his Tyneside home and shot six times by two gunmen, but survived.

The title of his memoir is based on his claim that 50 lives were saved when his information was used to foil a terrorist plot.

McGowan would have joined the IRA: Children remove a cot from the debris of a Belfast pub where 15 people died in a bomb blast during The Troubles

McGowan would have joined the IRA: Children remove a cot from the debris of a Belfast pub where 15 people died in a bomb blast during The Troubles

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