Newly elected Senator Rónán Mullen comes from an area with strong political roots, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
The little village of Ahascragh, eight miles from Ballinasloe, Co Galway, and its surrounding townlands is now the birthplace of six serving members of the Oireachtas.
Minister for Health Mary Harney is from the village. So, too, are Fianna Fáil's Michael and Tom Kitt, junior minister and Government chief whip respectively, and their sister, Áine Brady.
Labour TD Eamon Gilmore also hails from the area. Now Independent Senator Rónán Mullen has arrived.
Strongly religious, Mullen is a barrister, a lecturer and a columnist with the Irish Daily Mail - and one with a distinctive and articulate view of Irish society.
But he rejects the label "right-wing". Politics in Ireland today, he argues, needs a new language that does not view everything as either right-wing or left-wing.
Too often politicians are reluctant to speak about social and moral values for fear of being pigeon-holed on the political spectrum, said Mullen, who lectures in communications at the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown.
The State, he believes, should encourage families and do everything possible to lower divorce rates, though he accepts that divorce is part of the law and will stay that way.
"I do believe in State support for marriage. Public policy should try and make it happen. While we have divorce, we should try to inhibit the growth of a 'divorce culture'," he said.
He believes tax individualisation was a bad decision since it means that a one-income family pays €6,000 more in tax annually than does a two-income couple earning the same money.
"I am trying to promote a certain view of society that is communitarian, rather than individualistic," said Mullen, who worked for two years in the Catholic Church's communications office in the 1990s.
A strong opponent of abortion, Mullen believes that the confrontational campaigns during past abortion referendums served the interests of no one.
"I am trying to craft a new way of talking about social values that respects those with whom we disagree, which seeks courteous debate, even though it may be a passionate debate on occasions. I am pro-life, and I would have a consistent vision of life," he said.
He says he was deeply annoyed by a report that said Mother and Child campaigner Justin Barrett was one of his supporters.
Educated at the Holy Rosary College, Mount Bellew in east Galway, Mullen has retained close links with the Catholic Church, and will serve as a board member on Ceist, the new trust set up to oversee 100 Catholic secondary schools.