Jim O'Callaghan

Jim O'Callaghan is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who sits as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency. He was elected to Dáil Éireann in 2016 on what was his second attempt. He has previously been a member of Dublin City Council.^[1]

Jim O'Callaghan holds degrees in law and criminology from UCD, Cambridge University and the King's Inn. A barrister by profession, O'Callaghan has served as Legal Adviser to the Fianna Fáil Party since January 2011. He became a senior counsel in 2008 and has represented many high profile clients in defamation cases,including Louis Walsh, Julia Kushnir, Gerry Kelly MLA, Ivan Yates, Jim Higgins, Denis O'Brien, Justin Timberlake, Rosanna Davison and Tulisa Contostavlos. He has also appeared in two of Ireland's largest commercial court disputes - Fyffes v DCC and Menolly Homes v Irish Asphalt Limited.

He played rugby at a senior level, representing UCD,Cambridge University, London Irish, Wanderers, Leinster, Connacht. He was also capped for Ireland at under-21 level.

He is also a brother of the famous RTÉ television personality Miriam O'Callaghan.^[2]

He represented Fianna Fáil in talks on government formation in 2016.^[3] Early on 9 April 2016, O'Callaghan's home hosted a covert meeting between O'Callaghan, Leo Varadkar, Deirdre Gillane (chief adviser of Micheál Martin) and Andrew McDowell (a policy adviser of Enda Kenny). It lasted for more than an hour.^[4]

On the 19th May 2016 he was appointed by the Leader of the Opposition Micheál Martin to the Shadow Cabinet as Opposition Spokesperson for Justice and Equality.

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