He sports conspicuous ties, wears a bracelet, has continental tastes in food and wine and says Albert Camus influenced him most. But, behind the exotic exterior, Ruairi Quinn has long been regarded as a most pragmatic politician.
The 52-year-old Labour leader developed his political skills as a student activist in the late 1960s, after joining the party's UCD branch in 1964.
Even during the heady days of campaigns ranging from opposition to the Vietnam war to demands for greater student involvement in the running of the college, he was regarded as a moderate, ambitious to make his mark in "serious" politics.
He came within 39 votes of winning a Dail seat in Dublin South-East in his first general election in 1973, took the seat in 1977, lost it in 1981, but has held it at every election since February 1982, making it safer on each occasion.
A Dublin-born architect, he was first appointed to the Cabinet in December 1983 as Minister for Labour and has always appeared comfortable sharing power with Labour's senior, more conservative, coalition partners.
The only Labour Party Minister to have held the Finance portfolio, he comes from a family of high achievers. One brother, Lochlann, is chairman of AIB.
Although his position in the party is secure, it has not been all plain sailing since he defeated Brendan Howlin by 37 votes to 27 in the election to succeed Dick Spring last November.
A conversation he had with the deputy chairman of Independent Newspapers during the leadership election campaign about the possibility of an opinion poll being carried out caused him some embarrassment when it came to light in June.
Mr Quinn denied requesting such a poll and party colleagues, including Mr Howlin, accepted that he had not done anything improper.
Divorced from his first wife, with whom he had a son and a daughter, he married Liz Allman in 1990. They have one son.
