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Rita’s education
RICHARD RUDKIN recommends the extraordinary memoir of the late republican activist and politician, Rita O’Hare
Seven provisional IRA staff officers are among a group who escaped from the prison ship Maidstone in Belfast, January 24 1972. Speaking at a press conference are (l-r) Thomas Toland, 25, Thomas Kane, 24, Thomas Gorman, 26, IRA Chief of Staff Sean McStiotain, Rita O'Hare, Joe Cahill, Martin Taylor, 21, Peter Rodgers, 17, Sean Convery, 31, and James Bryson, 23.
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Rita - A Memoir
Rita O’Hare, Greenisland Press, £18
AS a former British soldier who was in the North of Ireland in the early 1970s, I have read many accounts from those involved in the Troubles, including former military personnel. Every now and again, a book emerges that stands out from the rest. Rita — A Memoir is one such book.
The life of Rita O’Hare was a remarkable one. Born in 1943 to a Protestant mother and a Catholic father who joined the Communist Party aged 17, Rita grew up in the middle-class area of Andersonstown, West Belfast.
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