O’Hare release angers loyalist

Hardline unionist Willie Frazer has claimed that the PSNI police failed to arrest former Irish National Liberation Army leader Dessie O’Hare at his wife’s home in south Armagh at the weekend.

The controversial republican paramilitary known as the ‘Border Fox’ was recently given temporary release from Castlerea prison in County Roscommon. He is due to return to the prison later this month, where it is believed he will be permanently released on licence under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Frazer, who heads the FAIR anti-republican lobby group, insists the former INLA man had been staying in the North despite facing potential prosecution in British jurisdiction.

Frazer said he had gone to the home of Claire O’Hare and banged the door, demanding to speak to her husband with several journalists present.

“The police neglected their duty to apprehend that man. It will be raised in the House of Lords and the Commons and our next move will be the European courts,” said Mr Frazer.

However, it is understood that Mr O’Hare has been living with republicans in the Limerick area for the past few weeks.

Eddie McGarrigle of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, who campaigned for Mr O’Hare’s release under the Good Friday Agreement, described Mr Frazer as a self-publicist.

He welcomed Mr O’Hare’s release.

“This is a new beginning for Dessie and his family.

“We would call on the tabloid press to consider the effects of their intrusions on not just him but his whole family.

“He has been hounded by the right-wing press for years.

“I certainly don’t want to minimise what has happened but, on the grand scale of things, people were in jail for much more serious offences, including killing people,” said Mr McGarrigle.

Urgent Appeal