Jim Glennon, TD, has lived in Skerries all of his life. He worked in his family's law firm, and came to the Oireachtas in a byelection in the year 2000 in the Seanad.

He was elected to the Dail in 2002 in the Dublin North constituency. He is married to Helen, and has three children, Frank, Louise and Joe. He has decided not to run in the forthcoming election.

Jim O'Callaghan is from Cornelscourt, and has four older sisters, including television presenter, Miriam. He completed a law degree in UCD, followed by a master's degree in Cambridge, and has been a practising barrister since 1993.

Jim is married to Julie, and has a threeyear old son, Luke. He is standing for Fianna Fail for the first time in the constituency of Dublin South-East.

Jim Glennon on Jim O'Callaghan I selected Jim to play for Leinster during my first year as team coach. We were going on a short trip to Scotland, and were let down pretty badly by another player at the last minute. I gave Jim a call and he rallied to the colours, and held down his place for the remainder of the season, until he went off to concentrate on his studies.

Jim and I seemed to hit it off, which may have been partly due to the commonality of our interest in law. We were also closet Fianna Fail-ers, and Leinster rugby wouldn't exactly have been a hotbed of Fianna Fail activists.

Jim was a very good player, and a very valuable member of the team. He was untypical of his club, Wanderers, in that he tended to be fairly physical, and knew how to look after himself, whereas Wanderers have a reputation for being nice boys from Dublin 4. Jim is a nice boy too, but he's not to be taken for granted, because he's well able to look after himself.

I was elected in 2002, and Jim was a great help to me in my campaign, and in the Dail. There is a huge amount of marketing and strategising that goes into a campaign, and you need guys with brains and a feel for community life and an understanding of the way people are thinking. Jim was very useful to me around all of that, and it's one of the qualities that he will bring to his own political career.

Many of the issues that I would get in my clinic would have a legal implication to them, and I always found it great to be able to pick up the phone to Jim and ask his advice. He undoubtedly has a talent for politics, and it's interesting that as I'm stepping out of politics, he's hopefully going to be stepping in. What always made Jim stand out from his peers on the rugby pitch was his intellect . . . he went to Cambridge, which isn't exactly a breeding-ground for Fianna Fail activists either.

I think Jim has potentially one of the most outstanding intellects of the next Dail, and it's not based on theory and academics, it's very much people and humanity-based. His intelligence is applied for the benefit of the people who surround him . . . his family, his colleagues, his clients, and in politics, and the community that he will be serving.

If he gets in, I think he will be a shining light in many Dails to come.

Jim O'Callaghan on Jim Glennon Jim and I first met when I was playing rugby for UCD in 1986, and he was coming to the end of his career playing for Skerries. We both played in the same position in the second row.

When I came back from England, I played for Leinster, and Jim was my coach. He was an excellent coach, and he had a good understanding of the game, which is surprising for a second row! He was very popular, and he's brought the same qualities he had in rugby to politics.

People are always attracted to Jim, because he's very dynamic.

Jim and I have stayed in contact since then, and I knew he had an ongoing interest in politics, and his father was a councillor. I was thrilled when I heard he was getting back into Fianna Fail politics, and was delighted when he was elected.

Many people will remember that particular occasion because of the hardship for Fine Gael's Nora Owen when she lost her seat in Jim's constituency, but what I remember most is the elation many of us felt when Jim was elected.

When I decided to go into politics, a lot of people were asking me why I was putting my career as a barrister at risk.

The reason is that I've always admired people who are in the public service, and I think politics is a very honourable profession. Jim has been very helpful and encouraging to me in that regard, and he's a great person to run things by.

Jim is very loyal, and he looks after his friends, and he's a great family man. He's a bit older than me, but there has been a symmetry to our lives in many ways. Jim came into politics a bit later in life, and dispels the notion that many people have that you have to get involved from an early age.

He has demonstrated that if you have passion, drive and support, you can do an excellent job, irrespective of the fact that you came to politics from a different background. If I get elected, I know that Jim will be a great support to me, but no matter what happens, we'll always be good friends and will still meet up and go to matches together.

I admire the way that he hasn't been completely consumed by politics, the way some people are, and he still keeps his interest in rugby up, and writes newspaper columns.

Many people were surprised at his decision not to run in this election, but I think it's a sign of his maturity, because he's done an excellent job for the past five years, and now he wants to go out and do other things. And he's very successful at whatever he does, so I'd say his future will be a great one.