Conor Lally profiles the new Garda Commissioner, a Mayo man whohas worked closely for much of the past two decades with Pat Byrne.
The appointment of Mr Noel Conroy to the position of Garda Commissioner could be described as many things. Radical is not one of them.
Mr Conroy's appointment to the highest policing position in the land came as little surprise to well-placed sources yesterday. In many ways it is a seamless continuation of the current regime.
In 1996 when Mr Pat Byrne was appointed Garda Commissioner he moved to that position from his role as Deputy Commissioner in charge of operations. When Mr Byrne vacated that job Mr Conroy was appointed to it, where he remains today. Now that Mr Byrne has moved on into retirement, Mr Conroy finds himself called upon to fill the void. He even lives very close to Mr Byrne, between Ashbourne, Co Meath, and Swords, in north Dublin.
However, while both men have worked cheek by jowl for much of the last two decades, they are very different animals.
"He certainly wouldn't have as high a profile as Pat Byrne and, to be honest, I think that is the way he likes things," one source said. "I don't see that changing during his term as commissioner. It's not that he wouldn't be as good using the media, he just wouldn't see it as a priority in the way Byrne did. He's not media-orientated at all. They are both very different people."
Others say he is more hands-on than Mr Byrne, that he is "a garda from the top of his head to the very tip of his toes", as one source put it. "He wouldn't be political at all," said another.
He is a hard worker who had a reputation for thorough investigation when he plied his trade as a detective around the city of Dublin. He was part of the T squad in the 1980s in Dublin, which targeted the organised crime gangs of the day, such as that headed by "the General", Martin Cahill.
Like the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, he is very supportive of the use of specialised units to target specific areas of criminality.
He has been keen to have an input into the modernising of the force in the last decade, long before Mr McDowell took office.
While the outgoing commissioner has taken much of the credit for the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau, some believe the new man had a more significant input in shaping the CAB.
In his current position he has also seen great change and expansion in the National Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
His appointment will come as a disappointment to fellow deputy commissioner, Mr Peter Fitzgerald, who was one of the favourites for the job. Others in the running included assistant commissioner and former CAB head Mr Fachtna Murphy, and assistant commissioner Mr Tony Hickey, who headed the investigation into Veronica Guerin's murder.
Mr Conroy is well liked among his peers, those in the more senior ranks of the force. His one failing, unlike Mr Byrne, is probably his low profile among ordinary rank-and-file gardaí.
"If you showed a picture of him to most of the young guards out there, they wouldn't be able to tell you who he was," said one officer, who has known Mr Conroy for over two decades.
Another source said: "He has a very good pair of shoulders on him in the sense that he's a very good leader. He's an absolute stickler for cross-agency co-operation when it comes to investigations.
"He's very, very good at cutting through the ice of one-upmanship, very good at saying to fellas, 'Listen, we're all in this together, all on the same side as each other'."
He is said to be "well able to delegate" and to demand results from those around him. More than one source within the force who spoke to The Irish Times described working under him as demanding. "You couldn't say he was difficult but he asks the tough questions."
He is a native of Blacksod, Co Mayo. Socially he is described as quiet. He is said to enjoy "a glass of red wine" but he is not known as a drinker.
Aside from his family and his job, colleagues said he seems to have no other major interests. He is married to Mary, a former schoolteacher, and has a grown- up family.