Brendan’s Blog

Bren­dan has cam­paigned on the widest range of pro­gres­sive issues span­ning many years. Much of his cam­paign­ing for human rights issues are pub­lished either in book form, blogs, media, jour­nals or peri­od­i­cals. His arti­cles are always thought pro­vok­ing, con­sid­ered, often con­tro­ver­sial and he nev­er shirks an issue. They are infused with his per­son­al expe­ri­ences and pre­sent­ed in his own inim­itable style. In addi­tion to cap­tur­ing Brendan’s val­ues they track social and polit­i­cal changes and will be of inter­est to every­one look­ing for a fresh and authen­tic analy­sis of the issues that impact us all.
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U.S. in NATO?

U.S. in NATO?

by | Feb 28, 2026 |

Why the U.S. stay­ing in NATO is worse for Europe than them leav­ing So, if we are just a few elec­toral twists away from a fas­cist hege­mo­ny where will ‘defence’ come from? Let me be clear where I stand on the North Atlantic Treaty Organ­i­sa­tion, (NATO). It is not, as it…

Irish neutrality?

Irish neutrality?

by | Feb 28, 2026 |

The sacred cows calf: What has Irish neu­tral­i­ty become?   Build­ing on from the pre­vi­ous blogs about the poten­tial of a full on fas­cist hege­mo­ny fuelled by hate around migra­tion, added to the obvi­ous changes in the secu­ri­ty land­scape,  when we come to Ire­land and…

The rise of Facism

The rise of Facism

by | Feb 28, 2026

The rise of Facism and immi­gra­tion as its fuel OK. In order to go for­ward, some­times we have to take a step back. Let’s go back 10 years. Feb­ru­ary 2016. Imag­ine I’m talk­ing to you then, with a list of pre­dic­tions about the next decade. First: Farage wins the Brex­it…

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The Media Bogeyman

The Media Bogeyman

by | Jun 27, 2024

The Media ‘Bogey­man’   First­ly I am qual­i­fied to write on this top­ic. I did my first nation­al media inter­view in 1996, a full 28 years ago. Since then there is bare­ly a nation­al or local media out­let that I haven’t engaged with. Most of those engage­ments over all of…

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Newstalk Interview

Newstalk Interview

by | Jun 21, 2024

The Euro­pean Elec­tions were a very edu­ca­tion­al, chal­leng­ing and life affirm­ing expe­ri­ence. From the cam­paign chal­lenges to the ‘left’ bul­ly­ing and the sat­is­fac­tion of once again meet­ing and putting my val­ues out there. Would I do it again? I dis­cussed this and more…

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A personal story

A personal story

by | Jun 12, 2024

Well that’s it, the count­ing has end­ed and my first expe­ri­ence as an elec­tion can­di­date is over. It’s been fun, bruis­ing, expen­sive, invig­o­rat­ing, edu­ca­tion­al and one of the most inter­est­ing expe­ri­ences of my life. Maybe it will be repeat­ed, maybe it won’t, I…

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International issues – A personal approach

International issues – A personal approach

by | Apr 22, 2024

We all think about and dis­cuss the com­plex area of for­eign affairs dai­ly, some­times so sub­tly that it’s unno­ticed even to our­selves. I do it a lot. I do it with fam­i­ly, with friends, with col­leagues and I do it on social media and else­where. Even with strangers and…

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What is wrong with #israel….?

What is wrong with #israel….?

by | Nov 5, 2023

This is not a post where I angst about the lat­est atroc­i­ty in #Gaza, or the #West­Bank, or Israel or South Lebanon where Irish peace­keep­ers are increas­ing­ly in dan­ger. There are plen­ty of those posts on this and oth­er pages. This post is about some­thing else. There’s…

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Beware social liberalism allied to economic conservatism

Beware social liberalism allied to economic conservatism

by | Apr 5, 2019

In a TV debate with Joan Bur­ton recent­ly, the for­mer leader of the Irish Labour Par­ty made a point that is of inter­est in terms of how pol­i­tics is con­duct­ed in Ire­land, and else­where, today. The debate was about the direc­tion of Irish pol­i­tics and where a real…

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We underestimate the rise of the far right at our peril

We underestimate the rise of the far right at our peril

by | Mar 29, 2019

Bren­dan Ogle: Almost inevitably the day that Britain will not leave the Euro­pean Union (EU) has arrived. West­min­ster is in chaos and our near­est neigh­bour is in the midst of a con­sti­tu­tion­al cri­sis. A gen­er­al elec­tion there may not be far away. Maybe the con­tempt the…

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Misuse of Media

Misuse of Media

by | Mar 8, 2018

I’m going to say some­thing good about the Irish media here, so note the time and date because it doesn’t hap­pen often. Inso­far as the media has a propen­si­ty to become a par­tic­i­pant in polit­i­cal affairs here, as opposed to sim­ply report­ing and com­men­tat­ing on them,…

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Bren­dan Ogle

25 years of Activism

Read a review written by the Irish Times of Brendan’s book From bended knee to a new republic here

Audio Visual Media

Lis­ten and watch Bren­dan in action for the peo­ple of Dublin

From Bended Knee to a New Republic

From its explo­sion onto Dublin’s streets in Octo­ber 2014 the Right2Water cam­paign, the umbrel­la cam­paign of the wider water charges move­ment, changed the face of protest in Ire­land. As a result of its stun­ning suc­cess and unique struc­ture Right2Water lit­er­al­ly put the ‘pro’ into protest. In win­ning its objec­tives it ensured that peace­ful protest and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence can no longer be tak­en for grant­ed. Get the inside sto­ry, step by step, from the cam­paigns co-design­er and nation­al spokesper­son. 

Off the rails book cover

Off the Rails

The Sum­mer of 2000 saw one third of Ireland’s Train Dri­vers locked out of work for three months sim­ply for defend­ing their jobs and safe­ty stan­dards. Bren­dan was cat­a­pult­ed from his box room desk­top and his train to head­line news and months of may­hem. ‘Off The Rails’ cat­a­logues the back­ground of a union move­ment unfit for pur­pose and a body politic unable to deal with a ‘Band of Broth­ers’ alliance sim­ply fight­ing for right over wrong.

From Bended Knee to a New Republic

From its explo­sion onto Dublin’s streets in Octo­ber 2014 the Right2Water cam­paign, the umbrel­la cam­paign of the wider water charges move­ment, changed the face of protest in Ire­land. As a result of its stun­ning suc­cess and unique struc­ture Right2Water lit­er­al­ly put the ‘pro’ into protest. In win­ning its objec­tives it ensured that peace­ful protest and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence can no longer be tak­en for grant­ed. Get the inside sto­ry, step by step, from the cam­paigns co-design­er and nation­al spokesper­son. 

Off the Rails

The Sum­mer of 2000 saw one third of Ireland’s Train Dri­vers locked out of work for three months sim­ply for defend­ing their jobs and safe­ty stan­dards. Bren­dan was cat­a­pult­ed from his box room desk­top and his train to head­line news and months of may­hem. ‘Off The Rails’ cat­a­logues the back­ground of a union move­ment unfit for pur­pose and a body politic unable to deal with a ‘Band of Broth­ers’ alliance sim­ply fight­ing for right over wrong.

Off the Rails Book