Biography: With his elevation to leadership of the Progressive Democrats Michael McDowell can claim to be continuing a century-old family record of political and public service which dates back to the foundation of modern republicanism in the late 19th century.
His political roots are steeped in Fine Gael and Cumann na nGael. He is the grandson of Eoin MacNeill, co-founder of the Gaelic League and founder of the Irish Volunteers, who also served as a government minister in the first and second Dáil.
Born in 1951 into a comfortable professional Dublin middle-class home, Mr McDowell was educated at Pembroke School and Gonzaga College before going to UCD, where he studied economics and politics.
It was there that Mr McDowell honed his oratorical skills as a member of the L&H debating society, whose members at the time included current Supreme Court judge and close friend Adrian Hardiman.
He also continued the family military tradition by joining the FCA and he reportedly appeared in uniform at one debate during his time in UCD. After finishing college he went to King's Inns and he was called to the bar in 1974.
He adhered to family tradition by joining Fine Gael and by the late 1970s was active in the Dublin South-East constituency, then home to the new Fine Gael leader, Dr Garret FitzGerald.
He became Dr FitzGerald's constituency chairman in the early 1980s, but was a critic of the decision of Fine Gael to enter coalition with Labour in November 1982 without a radical agreed programme of action to tackle debt and unemployment. He voiced criticisms publicly on a number of occasions, which prompted clashes with Dr FitzGerald, a family friend.
When Desmond O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985, Mr McDowell wrote to him expressing his support if the Limerick East TD decided to form his own party.
That December Mr McDowell found himself at a press briefing along with three other people - Mr O'Malley, Mary Harney and Paul MacKay - announcing the formation of the Progressive Democrats. He was swept into a seat in Dublin South-East along with Mr O'Malley and 12 other PD TDs in 1987 and became the party's finance spokesman. He lost his seat in 1989 through a target campaign by his former mentor, Dr FitzGerald.
Although he supported Mr O'Malley's decision to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil, as chairman of the PDs he made frequent comments from the sidelines critical of government policy and was seen as the conscience of the PDs outside government.
He was re-elected in 1992 but when Mr O'Malley resigned as party leader in late 1994 he decided not to run for the post.
Mr McDowell took an increasingly prominent role in the party in the wake of the 1994 election and the departure of two of the party's TDs, Pat Cox and Martin Cullen. He was heavily involved in drawing up what was to become the party's infamous 1997 election manifesto.
Commitments on the reduction of Civil Service numbers and proposals relating to single parents were blamed for a disastrous performance by the party. Mr McDowell was one of the principal victims, losing his seat. Amid recriminations over who was to blame, he left the party.