The long-serving Fine Gael TD from Laois Offaly, Mr Tom Enright, sat in the diningroom of his elegant home in Birr during the week, reviewing his political career.
Earlier, the 60-year-old deputy, who was the first Fine Gael TD from Offaly, ail, had said he would step down at the next election.
The decision was not unexpected. He had given up his Offaly County Council seat at the last local election and it was won by his daughter Olwyn.
Tom had decided to quit politics when he was ahead, and devote the rest of his time to the law and golf.
He traced his earliest involvement in politics back to his home in Shinrone where his family ran a pub and which, he said, was full of intelligent people. The debates in the bar sparked his interest as did his family's relationship with the late Senator P.J. Doyle. His first step was into Offaly County Council in 1967. Two years later he ran for the Dail for the seat vacated by Tom O'Higgins. He enjoyed the Dail. "I liked what I was doing and I am still proud of what I do. I would not change anything at all, even though I would have to say I made mistakes in my time." He refuses to accept that being a politician is now a low-status occupation because of recent scandals.
"There is good and bad in every profession. Look at the church and the banks and all the other institutions, including the press, and you cannot say there have not been problems," he said.
He was never resentful that he remained a backbencher, saying he was always a team player.
"You can do a great deal as a backbencher. I disagreed with a number of things when my party were in government. What I did was publicly voice my disagreement and argue my case," he said.
As a result, he said, he brought about a number of changes in policy down the years, especially in healthcare. In 1992, Tom Enright's political career hit a bad patch. A young Tullamore man, Pat Gallagher, of the Labour Party, took his seat in the Dail.
"Pat was a very good politician and he won the seat. Fortunately, I was elected to the Seanad and I remained there until 1997, when I won my seat back," he said.
During his years in the Dail he served as chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and he was the man who proposed Alan Dukes as leader of the party. He also thought highly of Liam Cosgrave snr and John Bruton. ???ail and at local authority level had increased.
["]He is a good a able leader and he is also reorganised the party and it is now on a firm footing right around the country and ready of for an election,["] he said. His heroes included the late John Kelly, and Jack Lynch who, he said, prevented civil war in Ireland. Senator Gordon Wilson was "a wonderful man" and the young David Thornley was one of the brightest people he met.
Our own Dick Walsh "brightened" his Saturday mornings and one of his closest friends ail has always been is Senator Maurice Manning.
Tom took part in the British/Irish Interparliamentary group and remembered inviting British politicians to Dublin in the early 1980s.
"Such was the tension at the time that no hotel in Dublin was prepared to keep the visitors because they were afraid." He said those meetings laid the groundwork for the AngloIrish Agreement and for the Belfast Agreement. These days, he is involved in the Council of Europe, on the legal affairs and human rights committee. In this capacity, he met Pope John Paul in Rome last year, one of the highlights of his career. ail's Constitutional Committee and the European Affairs and Foreign Affairs Oireachtas Committees.
However, most of his time is spent resolving problems in Laois/Offaly, where he continues his fight for a better share of the State's wealth.