Irene Margaret Dallas (1883–1971) was a suffragette activist, speaker and organiser who held leadership roles in the WSPU; she was arrested and imprisoned with a group who tried to gain access to 10 Downing Street.
The women were welcomed at the prison gates by Miss Christabel Pankhurst, Mrs Drummond and Mr Pethick Lawrence.
[10] At the breakfast itself, Christabel Pankhurst talked about the 'Silence rule’ which was imposed on women in the prison yard, and the attempts that would be made to abolish it.
[13] Despite being newly released, both Dallas and Miss Douglas Smith affirmed their intention of involving themselves in forthcoming by-elections.
The initials stood for “Young Hot Bloods”, and it was made up of a secretive group of younger WSPU members, willing to take risks, who included Grace Roe, Jessie Kenney, Elsie Howey, Vera Wentworth and Mary Home.
Dallas, along with Miss Ainsworth, was put in charge of the teachers’ contingent - it was noted that since the event would be taking place during school holidays, a large number were expected to participate.
[23] Her responsibilities were increased again in October, when she was put in charge of the WSPU's organisation for the Bermondsey by-election; her headquarters were on Tower Bridge Road.
[33] The "Sheffield Daily Telegraph” of Monday 20 June gives a long account of the event; noting that Dallas was only five yards behind the leader of the procession Mrs Drummond.
Dallas's demeanour is described: ’ a handsome fair haired girl stepped like a drum major as she carried high the first banner of the WSPU’ [34] Irene Dallas is next reported on in 1912, when she is in Paris at a Christmas dinner at the Restaurant Mollard (designed by Édouard Niermans), with 'exiled' Christabel Pankhurst,[35] and fellow guests Jessie Murray Clark, Blanche Edwards, Dorothy Hapgood and Irene's sister Hilda; and according to The Suffragette, the evening ended with the singing of “The March of the Women.” [36] Dallas had a long life, dying in 1971 in Bournemouth; she left over £13,000.