IRELAND's Finance Minister Brian Cowen, who will become prime minister next month, has a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense lawmaker with a finely-tuned political antenna. Cowen, who is also deputy premier, will take over from outgoing Prime Minister Bertie Ahern after becoming the only contender for leadership of the ruling Fianna Fail party when nominations closed on Saturday. In contrast to the conciliatory Ahern from central Dublin, Cowen, 48, hails from the midlands county of Offaly. He is widely regarded as a political “bruiser.” Combative and tough in parliament, he can appear cantankerous and grumpy across the floor of the house in clashes with opposition lawmakers. Affable and witty in private, he is popular with his Fianna Fail party's 78 backbench lawmakers. His first job when he takes over Ireland's 310,000 euro ($487,000) per year top political post will be to spearhead the campaign to deliver a “Yes” vote to the EU's key Lisbon Treaty in a June referendum. After a decade of unprecedented growth, the country's so-called Celtic Tiger economy is running out of steam, and Cowen will have to be more austere than his predecessor, who was able to cut taxes and boost welfare allowances. A former lawyer who is married with two daughters, Cowen is a gifted mimic and enjoys breaking into a song often. His nickname is Biffo - said to stand for “Big Ignorant Fellow From Offaly.” Last year, after Cowen admitted in a magazine interview that he had smoked cannabis on a couple of occasions when he was a student in the 1970s, he was re-christened “Spliffo Biffo” by some. While Cowen is measured and cautious like Ahern, to whom he has been a loyal lieutenant, he does not have the same seemingly endless patience of his mentor. While Ahern is easily accessible for a “doorstep quote” during the 70 to 80-hour weeks he works, Cowen is expected to be more reserved with the media and more protective of his privacy and weekends with his family. He was first elected to the Dail (lower house of parliament) in June 1984 in a byelection after his lawmaker father Bernard Cowen, a former junior minister, died of a heart attack at the age of 52. His grandfather Christie was a local councilor and Cowen is fiercely loyal to Fianna Fail. Cowen is a strong supporter of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) games of Irish football and hurling and was president of the GAA club in his hometown of Clara. He has held the ministries of labor (1992-93), transport (1993-94), health (1997-2000) and foreign affairs (2000-04). Health proved a difficult political brief for him and Cowen nicknamed the ministry “Angola” because of the number of political landmines he encountered. In foreign affairs he worked closely with Ahern on EU affairs and in brokering the peace deal in Northern Ireland. Cowen dismissed a personal insult by outgoing firebrand Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley in 2003, who ridiculed him about his looks. “Somebody told me the other day the reason his (Cowen's) lips were so thick was that when his mother was bringing him up he was a very disobedient young boy,” Paisley told supporters of his DUP party. “So she used to put glue on his lips and put him to the floor and keep him there.” Cowen said in response that things had moved beyond the “failed politics of insults.” __
