Michael D Higgins, who won the Irish presidential election on Friday, is a 70-year-old politician, poet and peace campaigner who wants to project a creative image of Ireland bursting with inspiration.
Short in stature, with a bald pate and wispy white hair, Higgins is an amiable figure who came through the election campaign by keeping himself above the mudslinging and muck-raking of some of the debates.
Fluent in Irish, Higgins speaks softly in a high pitch and has a deep feel for Irish culture, proving a popular arts minister during his long career.
He walks with a bow-legged gait after fracturing his knee during a fact-finding mission with an aid agency in Colombia last year.
Final opinion polls had put independent candidate Seán Gallagher 15% ahead of Higgins, but when transparency allegations surfaced against the businessman-turned-TV-panellist, many voters plumped for the veteran.
"Avuncular, erudite, experienced, with the Irish gift for language and tune, a bockety knee and a whiff of diddly-aye for the Yanks," was how political writer Miriam Lord described him in the Irish Times.
Higgins was standing for Labour, the junior partners in the governing coalition, and campaigned under the slogan, "The president who will do us proud".
He toured the country with his wife Sabina Coyne in a white battle-bus, blasting out music and soundbites.
Speaking to AFP on one of his final campaign stops, to an Irish-speaking school in Carlow, southeast Ireland, Higgins said he was pleased with his campaign and said he had seen a "huge surge in support" in the final days.
He cited his breadth of experience, his international work and vision for Ireland as reasons why people were backing him for the role, at a time when Ireland is recovering after needing a huge international bailout last year.
"We're talking about a seven-year period in which Ireland is coming out of a difficult period economically, with many difficulties in relation to unemployment, mortgage insecurity and therefore you need to be inspirational and inclusive at home," he said.
"And because of the way that today Europe is unfolding, we need to have reputationally enhancing activities."
He said he was offering the electorate an "inclusive citizenship" where every child counts, in a creative society based on dignity rather than wealth.
"This gives you a version of Irishness that is very, very warm, draws from our strengths in relation to our heritage and at the same time accommodates all of the possibilities that are infinite of imagination.
"This, in turn, means that when we're dealing with our international version of ourselves, it's something we're very comfortable with: it's very Irish, it's very republican."
Higgins was the only fully fluent Irish speaker among the seven candidates and said, "I think that the president should speak Irish, it's the first language in our constitution".
Born into humble circumstances in the southwest city of Limerick on 18 April, 1941, Higgins worked as a clerk before attending university.
He served in the Senate until 1987, and was a lawmaker for Galway West from 1987 to this February's general election.
Higgins was the minister for arts, culture and the Irish-speaking areas from 1993 to 1997.
During his term he established the TG4 Irish-language television channel and reinvigorated the Irish film industry from being worth €11m when he took over the ministry to €186m when he left.
He has campaigned for justice and peace and humanitarian issues in Latin America, Somalia and Iraq and has won international peace prizes.
Outside political life, Higgins has had a career as a poet and author, publishing two volumes of poetry.
Some raised questions about his age as he would be 77 by the time his term ends, but he has not ruled out running for a second term, saying: "Well, I can't predict the love of a nation."
