Conviction: Possession of a hand grenade
Sentence: 8 years
Went Hungry: 22nd March
Suicided: 21st May

Born in Londonderry in 1957, O'Hara joined the INLA and was sentenced to 8 years in January 1980 for possession of a hand grenade.

O'Hara's grandfather enlisted in the army and fought in the battlefields of Europe during World War One, before turning to the paramilitaries and transporting weapons down the River Foyle into Londonderry. O'Hara's grandmother's uncle was in the RIC until it was disbanded in 1921, something which grated on Patsy, whose own grandmother described him as "a wee bit bigoted about my uncle being a policeman."

Follow up:

Having been jailed for his part in a protest in Londonderry in 1968, O'Hara was released in 1975 and it wasn't long before he joined the IRSP/INLA. Within 2 months he was stopped at a checkpoint and arrested.

Claiming the security forces planted a stick of gelignite in the car, he was released after a retrial. He was arrested again in 1976 for possession of a weapon but the charges were withdrawn, and again, this time in Dublin, in 1977 for holding a Garda at gunpoint. Once again, he was released within weeks.

In January 1979 he moved back to Northern Ireland. He had been back in Londonderry only four months when he was arrested, charged with possessing a hand grenade, and later sentenced to his 8 year prison term. Before going on hunger strike against terrorists being treated like other criminals, he wrote "The real criminals are the British imperialists who have thrived on the blood and sweat of generations of Irish men…. I would rather die than rot in this concrete tomb for years to come."

Fortunately for Patsy, he got his wish. After 61 days on hunger strike, he successfully starved to death.