crime world Episode 64: The brutal and bloody reign of 'Border Fox' Dessie O'Hare

Fr. Brian D’Arcy recalls his dealings with O’Hare during the kidnap of his friend, the dentist John O’Grady

Nicola Tallant, Sunday World investigations editor

Nicola Tallant

January 21 2022 02:00 AM

Former businessman Jimmy Mansfield Jnr went to jail this week, convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice by directing that CCTV footage be destroyed.

The conviction centres around the kidnap of one of his late father’s employees, Martin Byrne. And while Mansfield Jnr was acquitted of involvement in the abduction, six men, led by terrorists Dessie O’Hare and Declan ‘Whacker' Duffy, have been convicted - and a judge has said Mansfield knowingly engaged them to help recover his assets lost in the 2008 economic crash.

At the heart of the Mansfield trial was the story that Byrne told in the witness box of the day he came face to face with O’Hare – and how it changed his life for good.

But who is Dessie O’Hare and what other lives has he crossed in a five decade criminal career? Nicola Tallant talks to Fr. Brian D’Arcy about his dealings with O’Hare during the kidnap of his friend the dentist John O’Grady. He recalls an incredible story that has stayed with him all his life and relives the day he too believed he was set to become a victim of the 'Border Fox'.