Rita O'Hare, her life, her work, her memories, will be toasted this Friday evening in Manhattan during the launch of her memoir.
The book, "Rita A Memoir," will be available at the special gathering set for Bobby Van's, 135 West 50th Street in Manhattan at 5 p.m.
O'Hare, who served as Sinn Féin’s representative to the United States for a number of years, died in March, 2023 after a long battle with cancer.
O’Hare came from Norfolk Drive in Andersonstown, West Belfast. Billy McCulloch, her father, was a Protestant from East Belfast and her mother was a Catholic, Maureen McGinn, from Ballymacarrett.
According to biographical details, published recently in the Andersonstown News, "Rita was a grammar school student, married at seventeen, had three children, but in the 1960s and early 1970s, felt she could no longer ignore the oppression of the nationalist community and decided to join the IRA.
"In the Rosnareen area she was shot and grievously wounded by the British Army on an IRA operation, and was imprisoned three times in all.
"She became editor of An Phoblacht/Republican News, and then Sinn Féin’s National Director of Publicity. Rita was the party’s representative in Washington for almost twenty years, having played a prominent role in the peace process particularly as a republican contact with the Irish government.
"Nelson Mandela, whom she met twice, called her his ‘little warrior.' But the British Government was so vindictive against her that they refused to lift the charges against her, refused to let her access the ‘on the run’ scheme. Jonathan Powell, British prime minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff, in July 2000, met with Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Rita O’Hare in Dublin.
He said: “Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness made the case that she should come back, because she could contribute to the peace process very strongly if she came back, and her father was about to die . . .”
"My recollection is that at the end of that meeting Gerry Adams suggested jocularly that Rita O’Hare should join us at the next meeting in Belfast. I said it would not be a good idea, as it was likely that she would be arrested.”
"This posthumous and extraordinary memoir, about her life in West Belfast, her times in prison, and her life as a political exile, is also a loving tribute to her husband Brendan Brownlee and her children. Rita O’Hare died on 3 March, 2023, after a long battle with cancer."
During the years that she could not return to Belfast O'Hare lived in Dublin. The book launch at Bobby Van's is free to enter and registration is not required.
