IRA 'Old Bailey bomber' dies in Dublin

A WOMAN convicted for the infamous IRA bombing of the Old Bailey court in London in 1973 has died at her home in Ireland.

A WOMAN convicted for the infamous IRA bombing of the Old Bailey court in London in 1973, Dolours Price, has been found dead at her home in Ireland, her family says.

The 61-year-old spent seven years in prison in the 1970s for her role in the attack on England's central criminal court, which injured 200 people.

An autopsy is set to be carried out and police are investigating the death, which is common practice for all sudden deaths, Irish police said.

Price, who was originally from Belfast but was living in Dublin, was part of an IRA unit that bombed a number of buildings in London during the 1970s.

After being convicted for her role in the Old Bailey bombing, she was sentenced to life in prison with her sister, Marion, and Gerry Kelly, who is a Sinn Fein representative in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

She later went on a hunger strike seeking to serve out her sentence in Northern Ireland. After securing a transfer to a prison in Armagh she was released in 1981.

Price was also one of a number of high-profile IRA members who gave accounts of their past to Boston College in a series of interviews as part of the US university's oral history of the Northern Ireland conflict.

Sinn Fein Party president Gerry Adams has always denied Price's claims he was a high-level IRA commander in the 1970s and that he had been involved in ordering the death of a Belfast widow, Jean McConville, who was abducted and killed by the IRA in 1972.

In a series of media interviews, Price said she had driven the mother of 10 away from her home before she was murdered by the IRA.

Adams said on Thursday: "I have known Dolours for a very long time. She endured great hardship during her time in prison in the 1970s, enduring a hunger strike which included force feeding for over 200 days.

"In more recent years she has had many personal trials."

Price married the actor Stephen Rea in the 1980s but they divorced in 2003. The couple have two sons, Danny and Oscar.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has begun legal proceedings in the United States to obtain the Boston College transcripts.

The college has argued that to release them would put lives at risk as the project was undertaken on the agreement that details would not be released until after the death of the interviewee.

The US Supreme Court put a stay on the handover of the papers in October last year.

In a statement, Boston College extended its condolences to the Price family but said it was inappropriate to speculate on the effect her death may have on the ongoing court proceedings.