page_title: Rosena Brown
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Rosena Brown / Later years
caption_attribution_description: English: Rose McGowan at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
context_page_description: Rosena Brown is an Irish actress of television, cinema, and stage from Belfast, Northern Ireland who also served as an intelligence officer for the Provisional IRA. Dubbed the "IRA Mata Hari", she was named in the murder trial of prison officer John Hanna, who was charged and convicted of helping the IRA kill colleague Brian Armour. She allegedly persuaded Hanna into providing information on Armour which she then passed on to the IRA; however, she was not charged with complicity in Armour's murder. In 1992, she and two men were arrested when a booby-trap bomb was found in their car. In 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, but was released in December 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
  A grandmother of nine, Brown continued to work in local community theatre following her release. She was portrayed by actress Rose McGowan in the 2008 crime thriller film, Fifty Dead Men Walking.
context_section_description: Soon after her release from Maghaberry, she performed in the west Belfast theatrical production of the play, A Mother's Heart with other former IRA women prisoners. It is a monologue about four mothers who have each lost children. In a February 1999 interview with the Sinn Féin's official newspaper, An Phoblacht she offered the following comments regarding the play,
  It [the play] also brings real humanity to the grief of loss; they are not just names on the news, where you read about deaths but then get distracted, this play really hits home.
  She has since continued to work with the west Belfast theatre group. She has retained some links to republicanism and was shown in attendance at a Bobby Sands memorial event in 2009 as well as performing at Sinn Féin celebration for International Women's Day in 2010. She has also worked for Coiste na nIarchimi, an organisation for former republican prisoners in which they are employed as tour guides around the Falls Road and other republican areas.
  Through her seven children, Brown has nine grandchildren.
  Brown was portrayed by actress Rose McGowan in the 2008 crime thriller film Fifty Dead Men Walking which is based on IRA infiltrator Martin McGartland.
  According to author Ian S. Wood, Brown refuses to talk about her past as an IRA member. During an interview, she promised journalist Mark Devenport that he would be able to tell her life story, "but that won't be until the war's over".
caption: Actress Rose McGowan portrayed Brown in the 2008 crime thriller film Fifty Dead Men Walking
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