'Peace-loving Border Fox' primed for release

One of Ireland’s most feared terrorists tonight pledged himself 100% behind the peace process.

Dessie O’Hare, nicknamed the Border Fox, was allowed 36-hour special leave to attend a reconciliation centre near Dublin after serving 16 years of a 40-year sentence.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell denied the Government was planning to free O’Hare at Christmas but opponents believe this is the first stage in a release process.

O’Hare, from Co Armagh, kidnapped and assaulted Dublin dentist John O’Grady in 1987.

He demanded a £1.5m ransom and cut off the tops of two of the man’s fingers during the ordeal.

He told friends at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation that his days of violence when he led the Irish Nationalist Liberation Army (INLA) had ended.

He told the centre’s executive Ian White: “My war has ended.”

Mr White said O’Hare spent last night at the centre along with his family.

“I have heard Dessie express his remorse,” he said. “He regrets deeply what he did.”

He said he had indicated a willingness and desire to apologise to the O’Grady family but did not know when this would happen.

“I’ve known Dessie over the last year and a half or so,” he said.

“His temperament was very calm, perhaps philosophical in the sense that he’s had a lot of time to think about his behaviour and certainly I would sense from my discussions with him that he has gone through a personal transition that makes him a very solid supporter of the peace process.

“The war is over for him in my opinion.”

The prisoner was delivered to the centre by officers from Castlerea Prison, where he is serving his jail term.

But while at the centre no Garda or prison officers were present.

“Given that this is the start of a parole process and a release process it would probably not be an appropriate thing to have prison officers here anyway because he’s got to start this journey now himself,” Mr White said.

Mr White said O’Hare took part in a number of discussions on conflict resolution and may in the future return to attend a special conflict resolution course.

He said: “Dessie’s trying to understand the pain that he has put other people through and I know that it’s going to take a while for him to work through but I would feel that he is as committed to the peace process and to peaceful ways of pursuing his goals as anyone who has attended any of the programmes in Glencree.”

He added: “My deepest sympathy goes to Dessie’s victims and at the same time I realise that we have got to try to move forward on a political level and Dessie’s release would be part of that ongoing process.

“But I deeply regret any pain that would have been caused to any of Dessie’s victims as a result of him being out this weekend.”

O’Hare was granted temporary release early yesterday morning and was returning to jail this evening.

It is seen as a first step towards his eventual release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

He was deemed a qualifying prisoner under the scheme as early as November 2000, by the then Justice Minister John O’Donoghue.

But in a bid to speed up his release he undertook a legal challenge at the High Court.

Last year a judge at the court said there should be no “foot dragging” on the matter.

The Release of Prisoners Commission – set up under the Belfast Agreement - considered the issue and recommended the move, having looked at psychiatric and security considerations.

O’Hare was later transferred to the lower security section of Co Roscommon’s Castlerea prison.

It was suggested today that he would be released from his sentence if he attended a course at Glencree.

But Justice Minister Michael McDowell rejected the report and said he had not yet made a decision on the case.