Crime & Law

Dessie O’Hare, former INLA member and convicted kidnapper, released from prison

‘The Border Fox’ was jailed by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in April 2019 after admitting to a charge of false imprisonment

Dessie O’Hare received a seven-year jail term when he pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne in Rathcoole and Saggart, Co Dublin in 2019. File photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Fiachra Gallagher
Thu Jun 27 2024 - 21:06

Former Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary member and convicted kidnapper Dessie O’Hare was released from Portlaoise Prison on Thursday afternoon.

Mr O’Hare, nicknamed “The Border Fox” after years of avoiding the law on both sides of the Border during his republican days, was jailed by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in April 2019 after admitting to a charge of false imprisonment.

Mr O’Hare received the seven-year jail term when he pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning Martin Byrne on June 9th, 2015, in Rathcoole and Saggart in south Co Dublin. He also pleaded to assaulting John Roche, at The Towers in Saggart on the same date, causing him harm.

The court was also asked to take two counts of falsely imprisoning Mr Byrne’s wife and son into consideration during sentencing.

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At the time, the court heard that Mr O’Hare told gardaí that he was working for businessman Jim Mansfield jnr when he, along with others, carried out the attack on Mr Byrne. The injured party had worked for Mr Mansfield’s father, Jim snr, for almost 20 years.

Mr O’Hare, who was born in 1956 and grew up in Keady, Co Armagh, joined the Provisional IRA at the age of 16. In the late 1970s, he would begin a long association with the INLA, and was involved in various internal feuds within the splinter paramilitary organisation over the years.

In October 1987, Mr O’Hare kidnapped Dublin dentist Dr John O’Grady from his home in Cabinteely, and held him captive for 23 days. Mr O’Hare severed the tops of two of Dr O’Grady’s fingers off while he held him hostage, and demanded a ransom of IR£1.5 million in exchange for the dentist’s return.

The dentist was later freed following a Garda operation in Cabra, but Mr O’Hare escaped.

He was later brought to justice, sentenced to 40 years in jail for falsely imprisoning and assaulting Dr O’Grady. He was freed from Castlerea Prison in 2006 under the terms of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement.

Fiachra Gallagher

Fiachra Gallagher

Fiachra Gallagher is an Irish Times journalist

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