Matt O'Connor: Why Fathers4Justice stormed the stage at the Rose of Tralee

The inequality and lack of rights facing fathers and the silence surrounding this issue sparked Monday night's on stage protest at the Rose of Tralee, writes the man responsible, Matt O'Connor.

AT the moment fatherhood is not recognised in Irish law or in the Irish constitution and effectively unmarried fathers have no rights, even if their name is on the child’s birth certificate.

So to become a guardian a father must either make an agreement with the mother, or meet a “Cohabitation Requirement” to have lived with the child’s mother for 12 months, including three months following a child’s birth.