SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has hailed Rita O’Hare as a “genuine patriot” after announcing the death of the former editor of An Phoblacht.
O’Hare passed away last night at her home in Dublin.
“Ireland has lost a genuine patriot,” said McDonald this morning.
“Sinn Féin has lost a talented and valued comrade and we have all lost a very special and very dear friend.”
The Sinn Féin leader also described O’Hare as a “powerhouse within Sinn Féin and the Irish republican struggle”.
“Rita O’Hare has been an influential Republican activist for decades and an important figure in the Irish Peace Process,” said McDonald.
O’Hare was a former editor of An Phoblacht, a newspaper published by Sinn Féin (formerly a weekly, now a monthly).
“Rita was also an articulate communicator and skilled publicist who was to the fore in pushing the boundaries, allowing Sinn Féin to develop into the modern, successful and popular political party that it is today,” added McDonald.
O’Hare was born and raised in Belfast. Her mother was from a nationalist area of the city and her father was a Protestant from loyalist East Belfast.
She was arrested in 1971 for the attempted murder of a British Army officer and fled to Dublin after being released in bail.
She later served three years in Limerick Prison for smuggling explosives for the IRA and was released in 1979.
Upon her release, the Irish High Court blocked an attempt to extradite her back to Belfast.
Sinn Féin presented her case to the British Government in 2014 as one of the IRA ‘on the runs’ (OTRs) under consideration to be allowed to return to the North..
Of this period the Sinn Féin leader said: “Forced to go ‘on the run’ in the early 1970s, for her active opposition to British rule and military aggression, Rita later settled with her family in Dublin.
“She remained a dedicated and committed Republican activist and was imprisoned for three years in this state for her republican activities.
“A British attempt to have Rita extradited was blocked by the High Court in 1978 when it ruled that her alleged offences were clearly political.”
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