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Two arrested over Peggy O'Hara funeral show-of-strength

Dissident show-of-strength at Peggy O'Hara funera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin.
Dissident show-of-strength at Peggy O'Hara funera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin. Dissident show-of-strength at Peggy O'Hara funera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin.

POLICE have arrested two men in connection with a dissident republican show-of-strength at the funeral of the mother of 1981 INLA hunger-striker Patsy O’Hara.

Dissidents staged a massive show-of-strength at Peggy O’Hara’s funeral in July with a huge colour party accompanying her funeral procession to Derry City Cemetery.

Unionist politicians had earlier criticised a colour party which fired a volley of shots over Mrs O’Hara’s coffin before the funeral.

A police spokesman confirmed two men, one aged 53 and the other aged 34, were arrested in Strabane yesterday morning. He said they were being questioned about a “series of offences” connected to the wake and funeral.

“They have been taken into custody at Musgrave Police Station in Belfast for questioning. Detectives are also carrying out a number of searches in Strabane today.”

Sources in Strabane have also revealed police are searching for a third man in the Co Tyrone town. It is understood two homes have been searched.