DETECTIVES from the PSNI’s Terrorist Investigation Unit are investigating social media pictures of a masked gunman, armed with a rifle firing shots over the coffin of Peggy O’Hara this evening.
The gunman is seen coming out of a crowd outside her home at Templegrove in the Buncrana Road area of the city.
He stands next to her Tricolour-draped coffin and fires off a number of shots from an assault rifle into the evening air.
Police received reports of the incident just after 8.00 pm.
TIU detectives based at Maydown PSNI station are liaising with its Cyber Crime Unit to glean further information from social network pages.
The shots were fired after a colour party of masked men and women accompanied Mrs O’Hara’s remains to her home from a funeral director’s in the city centre.
Mrs O’Hara’s funeral will take place this Saturday, July 18, at St Columba’s Church, Long Tower.
Among those who have paid tribute to her have been Sinn Fein chief and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
He tweeted yesterday morning: “Very sad to hear that Peggy O’Hara mother of Irish Republican Hunger Striker Patsy O’Hara has died.
“Peggy was a good woman who suffered much.”
Peggy O’Hara opposed the Sinn Fein strategy of engaging with the PSNI and joining the Policing Board.
She stood for the Assembly elections but failed to get elected despite strong support for her in the city.
Patsy O’Hara was one of two INLA members from Derry were among those who died on hunger strike.
O’Hara died on 21 May, 1981, aged 23, 61 days after joining the protest. He was the leader of the INLA in the H-Blocks
Michael Devine died on 20 August the same year.
The last of the hunger strikers to die, he had joined the protest 60 days earlier.
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