Fact File
Name: Pat Cox
Age: 45
Born: Dublin
Lives: Cork
Works: Brussels
Occupation: Independent MEP Famous for: Losing out to Mary Harney for PD leadership and beating a strongly-fancied Des O'Malley to a Munster MEP seat
Why in the news: Was elected this week as leader of the liberal political group in Brussels
Pat Cox is having a party. This evening the newly-elected leader of the Liberal Democratic and Reformist Group (LDR) will be met at Cork Airport by a gathering of his friends, colleagues and family from Brussels and Ireland, who will all shout: "Surprise!"
It must have been with something of the above emotion that Pat Cox MEP greeted the news of his new post this week. The LDR is the third-largest political group in Europe, and an Irish person has never held such a post. By all accounts, it came quite unexpectedly and is seen within the Cox camp as an endorsement of the respect and confidence in which he is held.
Commentators this week have identified the irony in the fact that the group he now heads is the one most closely affiliated with the Progressive Democrats, the organisation Mr Cox once represented and the one he helped to build.
It has also highlighted the glaring absence of a PD MEP in Europe and served as a reminder to people like President Clinton that in politics a major blow doesn't have to mean the end of the road.
The defeat of Mr Cox's life was as unexpected as his recent news. That is to say, the super-confident, some say arrogant, former RTE presenter didn't expect Ms Mary Harney to beat him in the 1993 leadership election.
He had been one of the last to be told that the party leader, Mr Des O'Malley, was resigning, thus losing some vital time before the leadership battle began.
He is said to be unbelievably focused in elections, allowing no room for doubt, convincing all around him that victory is the only possible outcome. "It came as a total shock when he lost," a source said. "He was genuinely taken aback. It was a big knock in what had been a largely knock-free career."
Mr Cox has had a comparatively smooth ride, largely, say insiders, because of keen intellect and a capacity for hard work. He was born in Dublin and brought up in Limerick, where he was employed as an economics lecturer at the NIHE.
Politics always interested him but he was unsuccessful when, in his first bid, he tried to win a seat for Limerick Corporation with Fianna Fail. His political fortunes changed when Mr O'Malley hand-picked him to help establish his party, the Progressive Democrats. For the chance, he gave up a job as current affairs presenter with RTE.
It was a time when close bonds were being forged between the PD inner circle. Later, Ms Harney was to become a godmother to one of his six children. His relationship with Mr O'Malley was one of mutual respect. As an astute political strategist, he was fundamental in the elections in 1987 which yielded successful results for the party.
By l989 he was Europe-bound. He won the seat by a huge margin when, in the general elections held the same year, the PDs suffered a significant loss of seats.
The same year he was crucial, along with Mr Bobby Molloy, in negotiating the Programme for Government when the party was in coalition with Fianna Fail.
Called home from Strasbourg by Mr O'Malley, he contested and won the Cork South Central seat in 1992. With a dual mandate (TD and MEP), his position within the party grew more tenuous and gradually he began to lose his place at the core of the PDs.
"This period was extremely difficult for him," said a source. "It was physically impossible for him to run his office outside of the country. It was made more difficult because he was whip of the party at the time."
He was in Vienna the day he got the news that Mr O'Malley was to resign. He had spent the previous weekend at a conference in Helsinki with him but Mr O'Malley had given no hint of the imminent development. Mr Cox lost the leadership election by three to seven votes. Mr Molloy, whose support he believed he could count on, voted for Ms Harney.
He has said publicly that on a personal level he felt sorry for Mr O'Malley when, in 1994, he beat him for one of the Munster MEP seats. He had resigned earlier that year after he was ordered not to contest the Munster European elections.
"He held a press conference in Cork and told Mary by telephone," said a source. He felt he would enjoy Europe more than the Dail, where the PD leadership was insisting he stayed.
Her reaction is described as "businesslike". "She certainly didn't beg him not to do it," said the source.
So Mr Cox and Mr O'Malley went head to head for a seat in Europe. Unluckily for some, it was a Friday the 13th, when one of the most experienced politicians in the country lost out to the relative newcomer, Mr Cox.
Over the past four years, he has carved a niche for himself in Europe, employing his economics background to tackle complex issues such as EMU. He is also anxious for Ireland's pure neutrality stance to be re-examined and "genuinely wants to make a difference", friends say. He is consumed by Europe, say acquaintances.
Mr Cox lives in Cork with his wife, Kathy, and his six children. A seventh died in a car accident. He wrote about the tragic event on the 10th anniversary of her death.
He does not see many of his old PD friends and particularly would not have any reason to meet either Mr O'Malley or Ms Harney.
Last year he took over the campaign strategy of Mr Derek Nally, a former garda he had first met while a presenter at RTE. "Pat doesn't do anything unless he thinks he can win. He gave up a lot of time and gave a lot of support to Derek . . . He was disappointed for him but he felt it didn't take from the man," said a source.
Using five qualities to describe him, his long-time assistant, Ms Patricia Ryan, said Mr Cox was "a fighter, intelligent, focused, generous and happy". One former acquaintance said he was "arrogant and uncompromising" which could be alienating traits.
Others describe him as "gregarious and a great raconteur". Chairing a Christmas party for the Liberal group he now heads, each member of the group performs a party piece at his instigation. It is a tradition which has continued within the somewhat stuffy confines of Christmas European political gatherings.
What happens next is the subject of speculation, although he will be leader of the LDR for at least another 10 months. It is uncertain how safe his seat would be in the face of tough competition from someone like Mr Dick Spring if, as expected, he contests the Munster MEP seat next year.
Another scenario sees him returning to the Dail but this, at least according to Mr Cox, is not a possibility, at least in the medium to short term.
Wherever his political career takes him, it will most likely be to some Europe-related post. One source suggested that in the European context he will go "very far and could even turn out to be the next Peter Sutherland".
That's a prospect that should keep him partying long into the night.