The Labour leadership crowns a long political journey for Pat Rabbitte, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Reporter
To the public, the Labour Party's new leader, Pat Rabbitte, is witty, intelligent and articulate - capable of inserting barbed humour into the often ponderous happenings of the Dáil.
To the majority of Labour voters, though to some reluctantly, the Dublin South West TD is the man who can bring back the days when the sight of Dick Spring rising to his feet in the Dáil chamber set pulses racing.
However, some Labourites have lingering fears that Mr Rabbitte, who, though a great conversationalist, remains a loner, may not be the man to lead an often fractious, demanding tribe.
"Despite his talents, and they are many, he is intolerant, impatient and does not tolerate fools gladly.
"Some of our guys, both inside the Parliamentary Party and out, need to be treated more gently," said one leading party source.
However, promotion often maketh the man.
"Pat may not yet be aware that his life is about to change. Brendan Howlin would have a better understanding of the trials and tribulations of Dick Spring and Ruairí Quinn. He was closer to the action," said another.
For years, Mr Rabbitte has enjoyed a high profile with the media, seen by journalists as the politician to deliver the superbly honed, and sometimes vicious, soundbite.
"However, the days when he could appear on Sam Smyth's programme on Today FM at the drop of a hat will be over.
"In a world where politics is presidential, the leadership is a brand that has to be managed," said the same source.
Born into a small family in Ballindine near Claremorris, Co Mayo in May 1949, Mr Rabbitte has travelled far from his roots, even though the imprint made by those days has never left.
His primary school days were in the now derelict Cullane National School, little more than a mile from home through the fields.
Having won a scholarship, the young Rabbitte was ready to go to St Jarlath's College, Tuam, Co Galway - the breeding ground for many a notable in Irish life.
However, St Jarlath's was not to be. "My father intervened, and instead I cycled the five miles to St Colman's College, Claremorris," he wrote cryptically when reminiscing in May 2000.
He graduated from University College Galway with a degree in English literature and politics, and a stint as the college's student leader.
He served as president of the fledgling Union of Students in Ireland and got nearly every college campus to affiliate.
By 1974, Mr Rabbitte was national secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, and a member of the Labour Party.
Given his recently expressed views about coalition with Fianna Fáil, it is perhaps ironic that Mr Rabbitte then quit Labour, in 1976, because of its alliance with the Fine Gael, then led by Liam Consgrave. However, it was the decisions about Ireland's offshore gas and oilfields by one of Labour's own four Cabinet ministers - Justin Keating - that particularly infuriated him.
He joined Sinn Féin the Workers' Party, winning a seat on Dublin County Council in the local elections of 1985, before finally reaching the Dáil in the 1989 general election.
From there, he quickly became something of a household name.
Frequently changing its political colours, Sinn Féin the Workers' Party became the Workers' Party, then New Agenda (briefly) and finally Democrat Left.
The changes failed to catapult the small party into the major ranks, even though it did bring Mr Rabbitte an enjoyed stint as a "super" junior minister in the Rainbow administration.
Hungry for a bigger role in Irish politics, Mr Rabbitte was one of those to back the merger with Labour, which finally went through on January 24th, 1999.
Mr Rabbitte, along with the three other ex-Democratic Left TDs, did well from the change. The Dublin South West TD ended up "marking" the Tánaiste, Ms Harney.
Despite his sharpness, he has occasionally misjudged the mood of his own ranks - most spectacularly when he initially backed an amnesty for holders of bogus non-resident accounts.
For years, Mr Rabbitte has despised Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, though not necessarily in that order at all times. The feelings are still strong today.
Contemptuous of Fianna Fáil's relationship with business, he lacerated Mr Albert Reynolds as he destroyed his own government by trying to appoint Mr Harry Whelehan as President of the High Court.
However, one chapter from that saga has remained with him. Speaking during the height of the Father Brendan Smyth crisis, he warned of revelations to come "that would shake the foundations of the State". The revelations never came.
Ever since, there has been a niggling doubt that his judgment, when tested in the cauldron of white-hot politics, failed the test.
Two earlier decisions may yet come back to cause trouble for him as they wend their way through the Flood tribunal's investigations of planning matters in Dublin.
In 1992, he accepted a £2,000 cash donation from disgraced PR executive Frank Dunlop. The money was sent back by cheque after he discussed the matter with local DL party members.
He suffered further embarrassment when it emerged that he had not told the Flood tribunal of the donation.
Ever since, he has argued that there was no need to inform the tribunal, as the money had been returned.
In 1994, he received an unsolicited cheque for £5,000 from the developers of the Citywest industrial park on the southern outskirts of Dublin.
He has since forcefully rejected accusations - some from former Workers' Party colleagues - that the contribution was tied to his support for Citywest's planning application in 1991.