On Thursday afternoon, Dessie O’Hare, who was once a part of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and is a seasoned kidnapper, was let free from Portlaoise Prison. He was also renowned as “The Border Fox”, due to his recurrent evasion of the law enforcement agencies in his times of active republicanism. In April 2019, the no-jury Special Criminal Court passed a sentence on him after he acknowledged the accusation of illegal detention.
Mr O’Hare, who admitted to the unlawful imprisonment of Martin Byrne in Rathcoole and Saggart, south Co Dublin, on 9th June 2015, received a seven-year prison term. He pleaded guilty to assaulting John Roche in The Towers, Saggart on the same day, causing him physical harm.
When delivering the sentence, the court was requested to take in consideration the two counts of illegal imprisonment of Mr Byrne’s wife and son. The court got to know that the entrepreneur Jim Mansfield Jr was employing Mr O’Hare when he attacked Mr Byrne, alongside other co-conspirators. Mr Byrne was employed by Mr Mansfield’s father, Jim Snr, for about two decades.
Growing up in Keady, Co Armagh, Mr O’Hare, who was born in 1956, aligned himself with the Provisional IRA when he was 16. In the late 70s, he created a deep connection with the INLA and participated in multiple internal disputes within this fringe paramilitary organisation across the years.
In one notable episode from October 1987, Mr O’Hare abducted a dentist, Dr John O’Grady, from his residence in Cabinteely and kept him captive for 23 days. During this period, he removed the tops of two of Dr O’Grady’s fingers, and asked for a ransom of IR£1.5 million in return for his release.
However, after a Garda operation in Cabra, the dentist was liberated, although O’Hare managed to flee. Eventually, he was apprehended and sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment for illegally detaining and assaulting Dr O’Grady. As per the terms of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, he was let out from Castlerea Prison in 2006.