Border Fox could gain permanent release from prison
A release programme has been mapped out by the Parole Board but the final decision lies with the Justice Minister Michael McDowell.
O’Hare, granted temporarily release regularly since late 2003, was released from Castlerea Prison earlier this week and is due to return later this weekend.
The 48-year-old was convicted in 1988 at the Special Criminal Court of the kidnapping of dentist John O’Grady, who had two of his fingers sliced off during a near month-long ordeal.
O’Hare has spent 24 of the last 26 years in prison, having earlier served seven years in Portlaoise from 1979.
A member of the INLA, O’Hare failed in 2001 to force the Minister to release him under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
While it was accepted he did qualify for early release under the agreement, the High Court ruled the Minister had some discretion.
O’Hare was given his nickname as he operated in the border areas, particularly in south Armagh where he was born.
In the early years after being imprisoned for the kidnapping, O’Hare spent much of his time in isolation. He stayed away from other members of the INLA, an organisation plagued by internal feuds, during which many of its leading members were shot dead.
In recent years, particularly after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, O’Hare once again attached himself to the INLA, claiming he was a member and at one point the leader of the organisation.
In 2002, he was transferred from Portlaoise to Castlerea, where he shares a bungalow in the Grove area with INLA leader Declan Duffy.
O’Hare was first given temporary release in November 2003. He visited Glencree Reconciliation Centre in Co Wicklow, but on his return was reprimanded by prison authorities after he was pictured in the grounds.
Since then he has regularly been given temporary release. At Christmas he spent four days with his wife Claire and children.
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