Moment ‘Border Fox’ Dessie O’Hare (68) walks free from prison after six years

The notorious Republican terrorist was picked up by a black Mercedes shortly after 2.30pm and then then driven away from the prison where he has spent the last six years of his life.

The 68-year-old is understood to have spent this morning saying goodbye to his fellow inmates before packing up his belongings and readying himself for his exit.

O’Hare has served the maximum time allowable of his 10-year sentence with three suspended for the false imprisonment and assault of a long-serving member of staff of the late Jim Mansfield Senior.

He led a gang of terror thugs who attempted a forced takeover of security at the Mansfield property during a chaotic period when Jim Mansfield Jnr was employing a series of dissident groups at the family home at Tasaggart in south Dublin.

Along with killer Declan ‘Whacker’ Duffy, O’Hare used his fearsome reputation and his fists to terrorise employee Martin Byrne, who would be placed on the Witness Protection Programme such was the level of threat in the run-up to the trials.

While businessman Jim Mansfield Jnr was found not guilty in relation to the kidnap, he was convicted and jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the assault.

Behind bars for more than 13 months in Portlaoise, Mansfield Jnr was held on the C1 landing at the jail where O’Hare was top dog and was afforded the terror thug’s protection during his period of incarceration before being released in March of last year.

O’Hare is one of the most complex figures to have emerged from Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Born in Keady in Co. Armagh, he came from a family steeped in Republicanism.

He was originally a member of the Provisional IRA and led a unit that killed part-time UDR member Margaret Ann Hearst in front of her three-year-old daughter.

He was linked to a series of killing and attacks but left the PIRA in the late 1970s as he was deemed too violent and erratic for the group.

In 1987, he kidnapped the dentist John O’Grady and demanded a £1.5 million ransom while moving his victim around the country.

At one point he severed O’Grady’s fingers and left them in a church as a mark of his intentions should the money not be paid up.

For weeks, gardaí played cat and mouse with the kidnapper and eventually after a shootout rescued O’Grady, but O’Hare got away.

Three weeks later, he was caught and survived despite having been shot eight times in Urlingford in Co. Kilkenny.

At his trial in 1988 he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, where he ranted to the Special Criminal Court about being the victim of British and Irish brutality and he called on Republicans to raise their guns and turn them on the judiciary, the prison service personnel, Defence Forces and gardaí. He described himself as an Irish patriot.

After his release under the terms of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, he returned to his border home in Monaghan and pursued a spiritual life, going to retreats and visiting Medugorje – but he continued to mix with dangerous criminals and paramilitaries and was suspected of working as an enforcer and debt collector.

In 2012, he again gave a ranting speech about patriots and the struggles of Ireland when he gave an oration at the funeral of his murdered friend Eamon Kelly, a veteran mentor to gangland figures including the late Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland and Eamon ‘The Don’ Dunne.

While O’Hare tried to keep a low profile, his secret criminal life was blown in June 2015 when he was caught in the middle of a ruthless kidnap and attack on Mr Byrne at Mansfield’s property.

He pleaded guilty and was jailed in 2018 and has been incarcerated in Portlaoise Prison ever since, where he is regularly visited by his wife and where he was regarded as being the ultimate ‘model prisoner.’