Born in Bellshill and raised in nearby Viewpark, in 1971 O'Hara moved to Celtic from Kirkintilloch Rob Roy (where he had been selected for Scotland at Junior level); however, like his elder brother Pat who had also been on the books at Celtic Park, he failed to progress from the reserves to play in any competitive senior matches in a period when the team was among the strongest in Europe.
In subsequent interviews for the club, he was listed amongst the best players of that time by Allan Ball, Iain McChesney, Crawford Boyd and Jocky Dempster.
[6] O'Hara played in one of the more successful sides in the Willie Harkness era at Queens; they enjoyed some notable cup results as well as finishing runners-up in 1974–75 Scottish Division Two, being deprived of promotion to Scotland's top flight only by league reconstruction which meant only the winners of the lower tier moved up.
[7] In March 1978, O'Hara moved to the United States where he signed with Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League.
[9] Queen of the South, the club to whom O'Hara gave his longest service, were informed of his untimely death on 28 January 2016.