About Brendan Ogle

I have lived and worked in Dublin for over 20 years. As an advo­cate of human rights, a social com­men­ta­tor, trade union­ist and activist, 

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Brendan Ogle : Human rights activist and social commentator

Values

Life is about bring­ing your skills and ener­gies to bear to advo­cate for oth­ers, to fight for a bet­ter fair­er world. To para­phrase Edmund Burke, and even Churchill : All that is required for evil to tri­umph is for good peo­ple to do noth­ing — The ulti­mate tragedy is not oppres­sion by bad peo­ple, but the silence about it by good peo­ple.

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Brendan’s world and the people in it

Bren­dan is a hus­band to Mandy, Dad to Dara and Kate and Step Dad to Troy (and don’t for­get four legged Fri­da). 

He enjoys the love and sup­port of his wider fam­i­ly in Port­marnock, Dun­dalk and Athlone. 

Bren­dan loves walk­ing the beach­es and parks of Dublin and the moun­tains of Louth and beyond. Bren­dan is an avid trav­eller and likes to expe­ri­ence the cul­ture, food, his­to­ry and of course the pol­i­tics of oth­er nations when he can. He is hap­pi­est read­ing a book, most­ly polit­i­cal or bio­graph­i­cal, some­where sun­ny when unwind­ing is pos­si­ble. 

Bren­dan likes many sports but his real love is foot­ball. His Dad brought him to Dun­dalk’s Oriel Park when…

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he was 10 and he is a founder mem­ber and first Chair of the clubs ‘1903 Sup­port­ers Club’. He has sup­port­ed Celtic near­ly as long, and just as fanat­i­cal­ly, being a one time sea­son tick­et hold­er at Celtic Park and he set up Celtic Sup­port­ers Clubs in Dun­dalk and Athlone too in a more dis­tant past. 

It does­n’t stop there either. His wider love of the game has seen him vis­it Barcelona at a time when he says ‘they were the best club side ever to play the game with Xavi, Ini­es­ta and Mes­si’, he also vis­it­ed and looks out for the results if Ger­man clubs St. Pauli and Union Berlin. 

Bren­dan has main­tained his clos­est friend­ships with friends from pri­ma­ry school and oth­ers that he has the clos­est bond with and he val­ues these friend­ships deeply. 

On a more somber note recent years have been tough on Bren­dan with the loss of both par­ents and also 2 beloved Sis­ters and he has fought and hope­ful­ly beat­en can­cer in very recent times.

These chal­lenged and loss­es, added to a rich tapes­try of life expe­ri­ences in activism and beyond for sev­er­al decades have giv­en Bren­dan a deep­er and more deter­mined view of what comes next. 

Bren­dan has always pushed up for pro­gres­sive change, has always chal­lenged and spo­ken truth to pow­er. These skills and expe­ri­ences, these deep per­spec­tives, knowl­edge and rich human­i­ty, can now serve the peo­ple of Dublin to make Dublin heard in Europe like nev­er before, while bring­ing the best of Europe to Dublin too.

Mandy La Combre with Brendan Ogle, Right2Water press conference - couple stand closely by Right2water banner looking at document
Brendan with his dog on a sunny day near the beach
Brendan Ogle and a blonde woman from Tidy Towns with trolleys full of food at a food collection point
Brendan Ogle, Podge O Rourke on the Right2Water demonstration - both men walking side by side with people holding placards saying NO WAY WE WONT PAY behind them
Des Fagan, formerly CPSU, now FORSA, Brendan Ogle, John Douglas, Former Mandate General Secretary, at Right2Water press conference - Brendan speaking to the press in the centre of the two men at a table in formal office attire.

25 Years of Activism

Brendan Over the Years

From fight­ing Thatch­erism on pick­et lines in the 1980’s and ear­ly 1990’s Bren­dan became the spokesman for locked out Train Dri­vers in the Sum­mer of 2000 as they fought for rail safe­ty and bet­ter con­di­tions. As an ATGWU (Unite) offi­cial Bren­dan led a suc­cess­ful offi­cial strike ensur­ing appren­tice jobs in ESB in 2005. As Sec­re­tary of the pow­er­ful ESB Group of Unions Bren­dan front­ed a nation­al dis­pute which pro­tect­ed €5bn of work­ers defined pen­sion ben­e­fits in 2013.

In 2014 Bren­dan co-designed and became the spokesper­son and co-ordi­na­tor of the mas­sive­ly suc­cess­ful Right2Water cam­paign and also played a lead­ing role in devel­op­ing the Right2Change pol­i­cy plat­form. In 2016 he was at the fore­front of the Home­Sweet­Home Apol­lo House occu­pa­tion tak­ing home­less peo­ple off our streets that Christ­mas. Bren­dan has led unions, dis­putes and cam­paigns with much suc­cess over many decades and also was active in the Mar­riage Equal­i­ty and Repeal cam­paigns. Bren­dan is a lead­ing advo­cate and com­men­ta­tor on a wide range of issues.

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1988–1991

Thatch­er’s pri­vati­sa­tion

Fight­ing Thatch­er’s pri­vati­sa­tion of British Rail includ­ing sev­er­al strikes.

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1998 — 2004

ILDA Lock­out

Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of ILDA and spokesman dur­ing 3 months lock­out in 2000 to pro­tect safe­ty stan­dards and work­ers terms and con­di­tions

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2004–2010

ESB Strike

Offi­cial for ESB mem­bers in ATGWU/Unite. Led an offi­cial strike in 2005 which guar­an­teed min­i­mum of 50% Appren­tice reten­tion on qual­i­fi­ca­tion by the states elec­tric­i­ty util­i­ty.

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2010 — 2013

ESB Pen­sion

Sec­re­tary of the ESB Group of Unions and led and won an offi­cial dis­pute in 2013 to suc­cess­ful­ly pro­tect €5billion of work­ers Defined Ben­e­fit pen­sion rights secur­ing them for those work­ers and their depen­dents.

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2014-present

Senior Offi­cer of Unite  in the Repub­lic of Ire­land:

Recent­ly- work­ing in Unite in a key strate­gic role, includ­ing as Senior Offi­cer in the Repub­lic of Ire­land:

- Co-designed and led the mas­sive­ly suc­cess­ful Right2Water cam­paign

- Played lead role in the devel­op­ment of the suc­cess­ful Right2Change Pol­i­cy Plat­form

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2015

Mar­riage Equal­i­ty Cam­paign

Played an active role in the Mar­riage Equal­i­ty Cam­paign

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2018

Repeal the 8th Amend­ment

Active and vocal in defence of Irish wom­en’s abor­tion rights and the suc­cess­ful repeal of the 8th amend­ment

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2020

Beat­ing The Ivy & Tip Theft

Pover­ty pay is rife in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty sec­tor, and work­ers rely on tips to sur­vive.

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2022

Beat­ing ill­ness and oppos­ing ‘kick down’ racism

News & Updates

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