Paddy O'Callaghan

Who is Paddy O'Callaghan?

Paddy O'Callaghan is a former Irish amateur cycling champion and a onetime Official Sinn Féin member of Kerry County Council. He is a second cousin of former United States vice-president Dick Cheney but differs strongly with his political point of view being a member of the Workers' Party for many years.

O'Callaghan was born in Co. Kerry in 1934. As a youth he became active in the National Athletic & Cultural Association of Ireland and particularly in the sport of cycling. In 1956 he won the Irish Cycling Championship taking the 100mile TT in 1956 with a time of 4 hours and 27 minutes. In more recent years he has been involved with the FBD Rás cycling competition.

At the time one of the NACAI's most prominent members and a national cycling champion was Dublin born Joe Christle who was also an active member of the Irish Republican Army. Under Christle's influence O'Callaghan joined the Irish republican movement however he remained a member when Christle was dismissed from the movement in the mid-1950s for taking unofficial action against British forces in Northern Ireland.

Paddy O'Callaghan became a member of the Ard Comhairle of Sinn Féin in the early 1960s and was close to the leadership of President Tomás Mac Giolla and IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding. When the movement split in 1969/70 O'Callaghan remained loyal to the Goulding leadership and was influential in swaying the majority of his South Kerry comrades in the IRA and Sinn Féin to remain in the movement.