In a pre-election interview with Flynn, the reporter had asked, "You might tell me to hump off when I ask you this but are you and Tony going to get married?"

Flynn likes to keep her private life private and her partner and the father of her two children, Tony Gaughan, is the same. The millionaire construction and property tycoon does not like the limelight.

Born on 14 September 1956 in Doohoma in rural north Mayo, Gaughan - like so many young Mayo men of his time - was forced to leave Ireland as a teenager and go to the UK in search of work.

He is now estimated to be worth in excess of Euro20m and, while he made money in Britain, it was his return to Ireland in the mid-1980s and the establishment of his own construction firm, TJ Gaughan Construction Ltd, that saw his business flourish.

He is now one of the richest men in the west, having made much of his money through shrewd property investments.

He has built a number of housing estates in Castlebar, the N5 business and retail park and a number of seaside homes at Cockle Strand in Murrisk near Westport, where he lived for a time. This scheme on the seafront proved to be extremely controversial as other proposals of similar scale and density were not previously acceptable to the local authority.

Last year, a campaign to save the 200-year-old Humbert Inn on Main Street, Castlebar failed. Gaughan bought the bar and plans to demolish it and transform it into a betting shop and apartment complex.

He also owns properties in his native Doohoma, as well as in Ballsbridge, Waterford and Spain. Gaughan was originally in business with his former wife, Theo, but he is now in business with local auctioneer Patrick Flannelly.

He is said to have paid a substantial multimillion euro sum to his former wife following their separation. He has four children from that marriage and they live with their mother in a bungalow in Castlebar.

His romance with Flynn began shortly after she was elected in 1997 following the end of her marriage to John Cooper, an Englishman who worked as a rep for Guinness.

Dubbed 'Beverley Hills' by locals, the plush Euro1.5m mansion where Flynn, Gaughan and their two children live at Windsor on the outskirts of Castlebar is registered in Gaughan's name. One local businessman and Flynn detractor told the Tribune, "Beverley Hills is actually built from stone from an old convent in Castlebar. It's mad to think that she lives in what used to be a convent."