Brendan McGahon (22 November 1936 – 8 February 2017) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 1982 to 2002.

McGahon, was one of the inaugural members of Dundalk Urban District Council when it was created along with other Irish local authorities by the British Government in 1898.

[2] Brendan married Celine Lundy, a widow from Newry, County Down, and took over the running of the family newspaper business in the 1960s.

He took another huge risk a few years later when he gave evidence in the High Court is support of the Sunday Times, which was being sued for libel by Thomas Murphy for accusing him of directing an IRA bombing campaign in Britain.

Local gardaí were ordered not to get involved in that case but McGahon was not deterred from giving evidence that helped the newspaper to defend the claims being made against it by Murphy.

He once advocated that paedophiles should be castrated as part of their prison sentence and was the only TD to oppose the referendum to abolish the death penalty from the Constitution.

"[4]On the other hand, he spoke out strongly against the influence of the drink industry and defied his own party whip to vote with his left-wing friend Tony Gregory in favour of banning of hare-coursing.

He was also on good personal terms with members of the Oireachtas such as Michael D. Higgins and David Norris despite holding fundamentally opposed views to them.