Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin is the Sinn Féin TD for the border counties of Cavan and Monaghan. He was elected to the Dáil in June 1997 where he topped the poll in the Cavan/Monaghan constituency. He was relected again in May 2002.
He is Sinn Féin's Parliamentary Group Leader and is spokesperson on the Peace Process and the Six Counties. He also has responsibility for Finance and Health and Children.
Caoimhghín has been a full-time Sinn Féin elected representative since he was first elected to Monaghan County Council in 1985. Previous to that he was Director of Elections in the H-Block campaign of 1981 when Kieran Doherty was elected TD for Cavan/Monaghan. Kieran Doherty later died on hunger-strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Caoimhghín was General Manager of the republican newspaper An Phoblacht/Republican News from 1982 to 1985.
A long standing member of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) Caoimhghín has played a central role in the development of the Sinn Féin peace strategy and in the progess thus far of the peace process. He represented Sinn Féin at the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin and was a member of the Sinn Féin negotiations team during the protracted talks which led eventually to the Good Friday Agreement.
In the last Dail he was a member of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Local Government, the British-Irish Parliamentary Body, the North-Eastern Health Board and Monaghan County Council.
Born in Monaghan in 1953, Caoimhghín is married to Briege and they have five children.