Rosena Brown (; born c.1945) 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.
Early life and career
Brown was born in about 1945 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was brought up in the Irish nationalist Ardoyne area and raised in the Catholic religion. She later moved to west Belfast. When her marriage broke up, her husband left her with seven children to raise on her own. At one time she worked in a shirt factory alongside Protestants, which was relatively unusual in Belfast where Catholics and Protestants were typically segregated in the workplace as well as living in their own neighbourhoods and attending separate schools.
Described as slim, blonde, immaculately groomed and petite, Brown landed a small part in the 1983 film Acceptable Levels, which was shot on location in Belfast. It has a Troubles-related theme. She then joined the Charabanc Theatre Company which toured Britain, Europe, the US, and Canada. She had minor roles in Ken Loach's Hidden Agenda and Richard Attenborough's Closing the Ring, and she played alongside Sinéad O'Connor in Hush-a-Bye-Baby. She also had a role in the 2004 Irish comedy Man About Dog in which she played the mother of one of the film's main characters, Mo Chara. Prior to her imprisonment, she starred in the Northern Ireland Office Crack Crime campaign. She has done much work in local community theatre since her release from prison.
IRA Intelligence Officer
She joined the Irish republican movement in 1970 as a worker for Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA. It is not known exactly when she joined the Provisional IRA, but in 1971 she was forced to go on the run and spent six years hiding in Dublin. After returning to Northern Ireland, she was arrested in 1978 for IRA activity and sent to Armagh Women's Prison for a brief period.