Brian Cowen

At the time Cowen, at the age of 24, became the youngest member of the 24th Dáil.

He was also elected to Offaly County Council in the same year, taking over the seat vacated by his late father.

Brian Bernard Cowen (born 10 January 1960) is an Irish former politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 2008 to 2011.

Brian Cowen was born to a Catholic family, in Tullamore, County Offaly, on 10 January 1960.

He was raised in Clara by his parents, May and Bernard Cowen, a Fianna Fáil TD and Senator.

The family owned a public house, butcher shop and undertaking business in Clara, beside the family home.

His father also worked as an auctioneer.

Cowen often worked as a barman in his father's pub when he was growing up.

He has two brothers, Christopher and Barry.

(Reynolds's supporters earned this nickname due to the fact that the vast majority were rural TDs and that Reynolds had made a lot of money in the dance hall business in the 1960s.) Reynolds became leader on his second attempt, when Haughey was forced to retire as Taoiseach in 1992.

Reynolds appointed Cowen, aged 32, to his first cabinet position as Minister for Labour.

In spite of being a member of the cabinet, Cowen was openly hostile toward the PDs.

He is a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association and continues to serve as president of Clara GAA club, for whom he played in the early 1980s.

He also played with the Offaly Gaelic football team at this time, having previously played with their minor and under-21 teams.

Cowen likes to socialise with his constituents in some of the local pubs in his native Offaly.

Cowen served as a TD for the constituency of Laois–Offaly from 1984 to 2011 and served in a number of ministerial roles between 1992 and 2011, including as Minister for Finance from 2004 to 2008 and Tánaiste from 2007 to 2008.

Cowen was elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1984 Laois–Offaly by-election, caused by the death of his father Bernard Cowen.

Following the 1989 general election when Fianna Fáil formed a coalition government, with the Progressive Democrats, for the first time, Cowen was one of a number of TDs who were vehemently opposed to the move.

Two years later in November 1991, the then Minister for Finance, Albert Reynolds, challenged Charles Haughey, for the leadership of the party.

Cowen firmly aligned himself behind Reynolds and quickly became associated with the party's so-called "Country and Western" wing.

He served on that authority until 1992.

Cowen remained on the backbenches of Fianna Fáil for the next seven years.

This was evident at the Fianna Fáil party's Ardfheis in March 1992.

In May 2003, he took part in a charity CD project organised by The Brewery Tap pub in Tullamore.

The CD featured 28 songs, including Cowen singing the Phil Coulter song, "The Town I Loved So Well".

In May 2007, Cowen told Jason O'Toole of Hot Press that, as a student: "I would say there were a couple of occasions when marijuana was passed around – and, unlike President Clinton, I did inhale. There wasn't a whole lot in it really."

Cowen is married to Mary Molloy and they have two daughters.

Cowen was elected leader of Fianna Fáil in May 2008, upon the resignation of Bertie Ahern, and was nominated by Dáil Éireann to replace him as Taoiseach.

Weeks after taking office, his administration faced the Irish financial and banking crises.

He received substantial criticism for his failure to stem the tide of either crisis, ultimately culminating in the Irish Government's formal request for financial aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which was widely regarded in Ireland as a national humiliation.

His leadership subsequently saw public support for Fianna Fáil plunge to record lows, and Cowen set a record for the lowest approval rating in the history of Irish opinion polling, at one point reaching an approval rating of 8 percent.

In January 2011, following a failed attempt at a cabinet reshuffle, and facing growing political pressure, Cowen resigned as Leader of Fianna Fáil, but remained as Taoiseach until after the general election held the following month; Cowen stood down from politics at that election and left office as Taoiseach a fortnight later.

The Sunday Times described Cowen's tenure as Taoiseach as "a dismal failure".

In 2011, the Irish Independent called Cowen the "worst Taoiseach in the history of the State".

Barry Cowen is a TD for Laois–Offaly since 2011.

Cowen was educated at Clara National School, Árd Scoil Naomh Chiaráin, in Clara and the Cistercian College of Mount St. Joseph in Roscrea, County Tipperary.

He was twelve years old when he entered Mount St. Joseph College, as a boarder.

After secondary school, he attended University College Dublin where he studied law.

He subsequently qualified as a solicitor from the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, Dublin.

In 2017, Cowen was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the National University of Ireland.