DESCRIBED in one profile as a man who wears unfashionable ties, dark tweed jackets and could be mistaken for a country schoolteacher, Mervyn Taylor has an old world air and, in some ways, is the most unministerial of ministers.
Like Bertie Ahern, he sometimes wears an anorak and colleagues say he makes minimum use of the State car.
One of three Jewish members of Dail Eireann, he is actively involved in Dublin Jewish cultural life. His three adult children live abroad in the US, England and Israel. His wife Marilyn is a successful author.
"He often comes across as being, quite lawyerish and bookish but what people don't realise is he has, a wicked sense of humour in private," an admirer says. Born in 1931, he was reared in Dublin and went to school in Wesley College before studying law in Trinity.
Steering through divorce legislation and its supporting Bills presented him with the most difficult political task of his career. Last night, ministerial colleagues claimed that his "quiet, reassuring advocacy" was critical to finally securing the Yes vote.
He has held every office at branch and constituency level of the Labour Party and, at national level, has been chief whip and chairman.
A staunch anticoalitionist, he gave Dick Spring a few headaches in the mid 1980s when the Labour Party was constantly traumatised by division. He did not, however, oppose the decision to go into Government with Fianna Fail in January 1993. "I don't think you could find any complaints about his loyalty to Dick," a Labour member said.