Rita O'Hare spent over 50 years of her life involved in the Irish struggle for freedom, first as a IRA volunteer on active service in Belfast in the early 1970s and afterwards held many senior positions within Sinn Féin.
Launching a Léargas book by Gerry Adams on Rita in Arás Uí Chonghaile the James Connolly Visitor Centre on Belfast's Falls Rd a building that Rita was pivotal in getting built, her friend and comrade Dawn Doyle described Rita as a truly extraordinary republican woman.