Tonight:
9°c
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
NEW: Some fares could fall by more than a third when Oyster is extended to every national rail station in London, it has emerged
More...
'I would have signed up for the IRA,' says American femme fatale Rose McGowan
Last updated at 20:30pm on 11.09.08
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
Related articles
Reader views (8)
A ridiculous, immature girl. She obviously has confused the glamor of the film with the grim reality people lived through. Shame on her.
- Cynthia, Boston USA
I live in London and my Dad is from South Armagh.
When I was about 14 I used to think the war the IRA waged was a righteous cause to believe in, both sides commited atrocities that will scar mentally and physically for years to come. At 14 I realised I was seeing something from a biased point of view and I had no idea what I wastalking about- much like McGowan. I decided to find out both sides of the story. She hasn't.
In its initiation there was a reason, a will for equality, civil rights. The longer it went on, the more the money poured in, the more it became a racket for an elaborate crime network. My uncle was spared his life for being Catholic as 10 of his protestant workmates were driven off into the night and never seen again. How could anyone who lived in LA hope to have a handle on what it was like? The girl is deluded. My family are green white and gold and I am fiercely proud of that. There will never be perfect harmony. There is hope though. Comments like hers dilute the progress made. Similarly, the loyalist paramilitaries who demand the IRA decommisioning and parade weapons through East Belfast regualrly are another feat of glorious contradiction, the same way a chez long by a pool in Bel Air doesn't constitute firing a grenade at an armoured personnel carrier, or picking your best friends face off the pavement.
People have an alarming ability to preach hypocrisy. The same with any fabrication, when it comes down to it, people realise you're a total fool.
- James Mcardle, London
I am disgusted that this "head in the clouds" semi-famous person should make such tactless and insensitive comments. She should try living with the threat of daily violence and bombings from a mindless organisation that were just thugs. And I say this as a practising Catholic born and brought up in London.
- Fq, London, UK
I would have normally said 'typical american' glamourising war and terror. But this a person who, living in America must have been affected by the twin towers atrocity!!
How anyone can glamorise the terrorisim of the IRA is beyond me.
She should have tried living amongst it, trying to bring up a family, being too frightened to talk to anyone for fear of reprisals.
What a brainless, stupid woman she is.
- Janey C, inverness Scotland
stupid cow. what does she know. typical hollywood comment to sell film. i can imagine her moving out of cosy, comfy LA to the Falls Road.
she should learn to keep her mouth firmly shut in future..........
- Jonny, London
Let us all be thankful then that Rose lived in La La land rather than Belfast, or else we would have had yet another terrorist inflicting death, destruction and sorrow on innocent victims. Nice work Rose, your heart might have broken for the cause, but the cause of those gangsters broke the hearts of nearly 3,000 families whose relatives were murdered by the IRA
- Dc, London
Amazing book, shame about the actress.
- S-M Hearmon, London, UK
How dare she say this! She does have a clue what she's talking about and if she's going to be such an ill-informed idiot she should keep her big mouth shut. How would she feel if a member of the family had been murdered for no reason, like has happened to thousands in NI.
- Louise, Belfast
