The public relations consultant and former government press secretary, Mr P.J. Mara was born in 1942 and was brought up in Drumcondra, Dublin. His father, originally from Co Meath, was a garda based in Store Street, who died while P.J. was still a child. His mother, originally from Oughterard in Co Galway, brought up P.J. and his younger sister on a small pension.
After leaving school he worked for a while in Allied Textiles in Chapelizod before setting up his own clothes company, Beeline, called after his wife, Breeda. He sold it to Penneys and, according to himself, "made a packet of money".
Later he went into the carpet distribution business which was not as successful and left him with financial problems which took some time to sort out.
He joined Fianna Fáil in the old Dublin North East constituency in 1963 as a member of the O'Donovan Rossa Cumann in Drumcondra. At that time Mr Charles Haughey was a TD for the area.
Twice he stood for Dublin Corporation only to receive small votes. When he struck out on the Seanad trail the result was the same. However, he was subsequently appointed to the Seanad by Mr Haughey, when he was Fianna Fáil party leader and Taoiseach.
Mr Mara had become close to Haughey, travelling the country with him on the chicken-and-chips circuit after the Arms Trial when Mr Haughey needed to get in touch with the party grassroots, test their feeling and establish a new base.
He was rewarded in 1987 with the position of party press secretary.
Mr Mara, who became a household name when he featured in the popular radio satire, Scrap Saturday, also ran Fianna Fáil's national election campaigns in 1997 and 2002.
More recently he became the director of Fianna Fáil's Nice referendum campaign, from which he resigned yesterday following the publication of the Flood tribunal report which said he had failed to co-operate with it.
In 1992 he was appointed media relations adviser to Guinness Peat Aviation, the Shannon-based aircraft leasing group, and has worked as a public relations consultant for several other companies since.