Profile of Bye Election Candidate Liam O Gogain

Liam O Gogain, is an independent Candidate, standing on the platform of Equal Rights for Fathers. Liam is 49 years of age. He shares the parenting of his two teenage sons on an equally divided week-on, week-off basis.

Liam’s political drive stems from his own life experiences. When he separated in 1990 his children were one and two years old. As a father his legal advice was to accept seeing his children for one day each weekend. Liam fought against this discrimination and became the first father to win joint physical custody of his children in the secret Irish family courts. In 1992 he set up the Parental Equality support group which was instrumental in establishing Joint Custody as an option into Irish Law in the 1997 Children’s Act and also establishing the rights of grandparents.

Despite looking after his children on an equal basis, Liam is denied a share of the Children’s Allowance, because he is a man, and in fact he is even classified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs as a Deserting Husband and father. Liam is being denied the right to describe his occupation in the election as “FATHER” whereas “MOTHER” has previously been accepted as a valid occupation.

Liam is an engineer and lectures in electronics in DKIT, in Dundalk where he has been piloting an innovative student-centred learning environment based on the “Meitheal”, where communities support each other to achieve a common goal. He coaches minor football and believes that team sports are vital to help forming and developing good character in young men.

Liam stood in the EU East Constituency in 2004 on Father’s Rights issues and polled 3,407 votes. As an independent candidate with limited resources he has focused his energies on providing information on his website, at www.liamog.com