'Border Fox' calls for early release

One of the most notorious republican paramilitary prisoners today took his case for early release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement to the High Court.

Dessie O’Hare - also known as the Border Fox - is currently serving a 40-year jail sentence after admitting his role in the 1987 kidnap and torture of a dentist.

O’Hare, a leading member of the INLA, now 44, later described the crime as a failed fund-raising bid.

His legal team today told the court that O’Hare, as a member of an organisation on recognised ceasefire, should have qualified for accelerated release by the end of July 2000.

The Justice Minister had failed to fulfil his obligations under the Good Friday Agreement, said Patrick Gageby SC, for O’Hare.

O’Hare and other INLA members planned to kidnap multi-millionaire Austin Darragh from his Dublin home but, not finding him there, they instead kidnapped his son-in-law, dentist John O’Grady, demanding £1.5m for his return.

No money was paid and two of Mr O’Grady’s fingers were removed using a hammer and chisel before he was freed in a police raid.

O’Hare was shot 15 times as he was arrested, but recovered and was convicted along with three others in Dublin’s non-jury Special Criminal Court.

He has been in Portlaoise Prison since 1987.

In an affidavit O’Hare told the court he had joined the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s before joining the rival INLA.

He described himself as currently a member of the INLA and the officer commanding the INLA in Portlaoise Prison.

In the light of his organisation’s "total support" of the Good Friday Agreement, O’Hare said he was entitled to join his three co-defendants on early release.

Mr Gageby said: "The State agreed that it would release all qualifying prisoners as of the end of July 2000.

"All I am doing is requiring the state to abide by the law. I am asking the courts to uphold the law."

Such prisoners detained in the UK were released within the two-year deadline, he added.