The former kidnap victim Mr Ben Dunne said yesterday the likely release of Dessie O'Hare was "a very hard pill to take" but it was the pill that went with the Belfast Agreement and peace in Northern Ireland.
O'Hare kidnapped the dentist Dr John O'Grady in 1987 and severed two of his fingers while he was in captivity. O'Hare was moved from Portlaoise Prison to a more open regime at Castlerea Prison on Sunday after being deemed eligible for early release under the Belfast Agreement.
"If you don't forgive, what do you do? What are the options?" Mr Dunne said on RTÉ's Liveline yesterday.
The businessman and former supermarket boss was abducted from his car in October 1981 while driving to Newry. He was held for one week before being released. Yesterday, he said he had forgiven his abductors and said everyone had to learn how to forgive. His kidnapping did not involve Dessie O'Hare.
He had been forgiven by his wife for mistakes he had made. Mr Dunne was referring to an occasion in 1992 when he was caught in a Florida hotel room with cocaine and a woman from an escort agency. "I would say that my wife had a lot of difficulty forgiving me but she did," he said.
Dr O'Grady has not yet spoken publicly on O'Hare's move to the more open prison regime in Castlerea.
Yesterday, his assistant said he had no comment to make. Dr O'Grady is a dental surgeon at Dublin's Blackrock Clinic.
