Michael McDowell's shimmy up the political lamp-post may yet see him installed as the next leader of the PDs, writes Carl O'Brien.
Ever since Michael McDowell climbed up that lamp-post in Ranelagh to speak out against the evils of one-party Government in the last election campaign, there's been no silencing him. For the last 10 months he's been the political equivalent of the Duracell bunny, always available for a sound bite, popping up regularly with a new policy initiative, constantly sounding off about one issue or another. Some of these pronouncements have even been related to his brief as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
It was inevitable then that talk of McDowell as the next leader of the PDs would surface sooner or later. And today, at the party's annual conference in Galway, what some see as the first moves in a potential leadership contest will be made.
Then again, his frenetic activity shouldn't surprise anyone. After being forced to zip it for three years as Attorney General, he exploded into life in the election campaign, launching laser-guided missiles at Fianna Fáil and directing cluster-bomb attacks at the ragbag of Trots, Greens and Provos.
The results were spectacular. Written off by a host of pundits in the election, he not only managed to top the poll in his constituency, but helped double the PDs' representation in the Dáil.
"He went into Dublin-South East like the Americans went into Baghdad," says one Progressive Democrats source. "He didn't have any choice, he had to go for it."
Now tucked safely back into bed with Fianna Fáil, he's directing most of his energy into his ministry and trying to effect change in the notoriously bureaucratic world of the Department of Justice. Those who work closely with him don't doubt he can do the job - but they sound a warning note over his absolute belief in his own ability.
"He's someone who can draft a perfectly-formed Bill in 24 hours and is frighteningly effective at articulating an argument," one PD gasps. "He has the potential, particularly with his legal background, to be the biggest success story of the Government," says another, "but he needs to listen to people. He can't do it all himself."
But the new sheen of Minister for Justice is already beginning to look tarnished. Of the 35 or so new Bills promised from his Department this year, just one has been published and none has been enacted. They touch on everything from prison service reform, compensation law and alternatives to costly tribunals of inquiry.
If it wasn't for the war in Iraq, last week's crime figures would have sparked a deafening public outcry. They showed assaults up 50 per cent, sexual offences up 62 per cent, drugs offences up 23 per cent and fraud up 22 per cent.
And then there is the big bogey issue, reform of the Garda, traditionally one of the great political untouchables.
"I think he's in love with the office," a senior Opposition source says. "Increasingly it looks like he's nothing more than a political windbag with something to say about everything."
Even those within his own party are shifting uncomfortably under the weight of expectation he's building up. One PD source harrumphs: "you can only waffle for so long . . . there's a view in the party that it's about time he got off his soapbox, went into the office and started delivering."
A motion scheduled to be put before today's conference from McDowell's constituency will call for the leadership of the party to be decided by its 2,500 members, rather than the 12-member parliamentary party. His 250 members in Dublin South-East may not compare with Tom Parlon's 500-strong party machine in Laois-Offaly, but admiration for McDowell stretches well beyond his own fiefdom.
Many party members agree that he is the only serious contender for the post and say it's only a matter of time before he takes over the party reins.
"There is great admiration within the party for what he's doing," says one senior PD. "What people said to me about Mary Harney a few years ago, they're saying about Michael McDowell now."
A few in the party are less forgiving about his past and say that, while he has undoubted intellect, he is politically naïve. "I'd have great problems about a person who sulks when they lose, and then snipes from the outside. I'd prefer someone with much thicker skin," says another PD source.
In reality, however, talk of leadership is premature. He and Mary Harney may have had their differences in the past, but he is still loyal and unlikely to make any move until she decides to exit the stage.
His supporters, though, are still keen to talk him up and present the 51-year-old as a timely antidote to the shifting and fence-sitting style of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
But while McDowell may well be a conviction politician, he's also a walking mass of contradictions. He says he's a libertarian, yet was in favour of controversial anti-Traveller trespass legislation. He supports equality, yet is against giving automatic rights to key services for disabled people. He is backing the attempts to restrict the Freedom of Information Act, yet has spoken out passionately against Government secrecy. The list goes on.
There's an almost irreconcilable gulf between the public persona and the private person.
With his bulbous eyes and snarling tongue, he is the archetypal rottweiler of the Dáil, tearing at opposition members who rile him most.
"I have a right to make a speech without being barracked by somebody who is not a democrat but believes in establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat as soon as he possibly can," he hissed to Socialist TD Joe Higgins in a typical outburst last week.
In private, however, he is a gentleman to the last; polite, courteous, good company and never loses the cool under pressure. Those who work closely with him say he is supremely self-confident, a trait often mistaken for arrogance. "What you see is what you get - there is no hidden agenda," says a PD source. "If anything, he's naïve in relation to being devious. If he's going up a one-way street he can't see the arrows coming at him."
McDowell's confidence was instilled through lively debate in a family where everyone was encouraged to express his/her opinion on an issue, but had to defend their position without resorting to cliché.
He grew up in a large, rambling house on Dublin's Leeson Street. His father Anthony was a barrister, and his mother, Eilis, worked for a time as an architect.
She was the daughter of Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish Volunteers and also known as the man who tried to call off the 1916 Easter Rising.
Education was the family's number one priority, with the boys going to the best Jesuit schools, Clongowes or Gonzaga. All of the family, three boys and two girls, later went on to University College Dublin.
McDowell cut his political teeth on the ankles of Garret FitzGerald, as chairman of Fine Gael's Dublin South-East constituency between 1982 and 1987. During this time he made a series of Cassandra-like speeches, berating the Taoiseach for failing to curb Labour's ideology and spending inclinations.
When Des O'Malley was booted out of Fianna Fáil in 1986, McDowell jumped ship to become a founding member of the PDs, which set out a unique policy of tax and constitutional reform. McDowell, along with 13 of his party colleagues, was elected in 1987. Yet just two years later, stifled by Fianna Fáil's policy of fiscal rectitude, the party's representation was halved.
Outside the party, he continued to play a central role. In his hectoring speeches, he sought to inoculate the PDs against the clammy embrace of Fianna Fáil.
Charles J. Haughey spoke for many of the party faithful when he famously described McDowell as one of the "nastiest piece of goods that ever crawled into this House".
When he was re-elected in 1992, his support for Mary Harney shortly afterwards in the leadership struggle with Pat Cox proved crucial. After losing his seat in 1997, however, he resigned from the party in protest over the way the campaign was run.
It took a prolonged effort by the PD leader to woo him back to the fold, resulting in his appointment as Attorney General.
Now firmly ensconced in Leinster House, it looks like the leadership question will wait another day to be resolved.
One thing, however, is clear: the party needs McDowell. He has been the intellectual dynamo behind much of the PDs' success, churning out policies, thinking creatively and ensuring the party is radical and not redundant.
While there may be question marks over his capacity to deliver on his promises, he is sparking debate and his oft-quoted verbal jousts with the Opposition are even beginning to make Dáil debates seem interesting once again.
There is even a grudging admiration of him from across the floor of the House, although no one would dare say so publicly.
"Sure he can be nasty, arrogant and very intimidating," says one senior Opposition TD of the Justice Minister. "But he's probably the right man for the job."