As the year 2011 comes to a close “Cloch le Carn” looks back on the life of the late Brian Lenihan, former Minister for Finance & Justice and the only Fianna Fáil TD in the Dublin Area to be re-elected in this year’s general election. ( Cloch le Carn is the occasional series which takes a constructive but not always uncritical look at public figures who’ve made a contribution to Irish society.) Brian Lenihan was destined to be a politician. His father Brian Snr, grandfather Paddy and aunt Mary O’Rourke all represented Fianna Fáil with distinction in Dáil Éireann before him, and although initially it seemed that Brian was destined for a distinguished career in law, he took a career detour in 1996 when he won the Dublin West by-election arising from the death of his father. His early years in the Dáil saw his busy himself as a backbencher and he was appointed as chairman of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. However, he was passed over for Ministerial Appointment on a number of occasions by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and it was only in the dying days of Ahern’s leadership that he became Minister for Justice in 2007. Within a year Ahern was gone but ensured he would be replaced as Fianna Fáil leader by Brian Cowen. Cowen, in turn, decided that Lenihan should replace himself as Minister for Finance. But in politics timing is important and within weeks of Lenihan taking over in Merrion Street what became apparent was that the economy was in meltdown. In a midnight move the Government guaranteed the banks. Brian Lenihan presented a series of harsh budgets and also set up of NAMA in an attempt to address the crisis. In his budget speech of December 2009 he predicted that the worst was over, but there was soon to be the shock that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. The news of his cancer was broken on TV3 on St Stephen’s Day 2009 – a shock to friends and colleagues. Lenihan decided the country came first and vowed to con