It was through this interest she met Jimmy Drumm, a long time Irish Republican who was interned in a Belfast prison, whom she married upon his release in 1947.

[4] The onset of the Troubles in Northern Ireland severely ratcheted up the sectarian tensions in the region and forced dramatic responses from Republicans.

[7] In September 1976, Drumm entered the Mater Infirmorum Hospital for surgery on one of her eyes amid rumours that post-surgery, she would be departing Northern Ireland to take up residence in Dublin.

On 18 October her husband announced that at the next Sinn Féin ard fheis, Drumm would be resigning from her position as vice president on the grounds of ill health, but that she promised to return when recovered.

[8][9] In the immediate aftermath, many questioned why her location had been so well publicised as well as criticising the lack of security around the hospital that allowed for her assassins to so easily enter her ward.

[4] Over 30,000 people attended her funeral at Milltown cemetery, her coffin escorted by members of Cumann na mBan.

The funeral drew a heavy presence from the British Army, who prevented Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and other leaders from attending.

[4][11] Merlyn Rees, a former British administrator for Northern Ireland, compared her with Charles Dickens's Madame Defarge, a fictional woman who calls for blood and death during the French Revolution.