1. Patrick Cox was born on 28 November 1952 and is an Irish former Fine Gael politician, journalist and television current affairs presenter who served as President of the European Parliament from 2002 to 2004 and Leader of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group from 1998 to 2002.
Pat Cox served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Munster constituency from 1989 to 2004 and a Teachta Dala for Cork South-Central from 1992 to 1994.
Pat Cox was then educated at Ardscoil Ris in Limerick, the University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin.
Pat Cox is married to Cathy, and lived at Ashboro, Shanakiel in the Cork north side suburb of Sunday's Well for 16 years.
Pat Cox first came to prominence as a journalist, then a presenter with RTE's Today Tonight, a four-nights-a-week current affairs programme which dominated the Irish television schedules in the 1980s.
Pat Cox left the programme to become a political candidate.
Pat Cox stood as a Fianna Fail candidate at the 1979 local elections.
Pat Cox was elected an MEP in 1989 for the constituency of Munster, representing the Progressive Democrats.
At the 1992 general election, Pat Cox was elected to Dail Eireann as a TD for Cork South-Central.
Pat Cox left the PDs in May 1994 in a dispute over his seat as an MEP.
However, Pat Cox then decided to contest the seat as an independent, beating O'Malley.
Pat Cox subsequently served on the Committee on Institutional Affairs from 1994 until 1997 and on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy from 1997 until 1999.
Pat Cox was unanimously re-elected Group President in June 1999, following his re-election as an MEP at the 1999 European Parliament election.
Pat Cox resigned this post when he became President of the European Parliament on 15 January 2002, in accordance with an agreement between the European People's Party and the ELDR groups at the start of the term.
In July 2003, Pat Cox took a personal telephone apology from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after Berlusconi managed to offend several MEPs.
Pat Cox did not contest the 2004 elections to the European parliament.
Pat Cox is a member of the Comite d'Honneur of the Institute of European Affairs.
In June 2009, Pat Cox temporarily stepped down as president and took over the position of the campaign director for the pro-Lisbon treaty initiative Ireland for Europe.
Pat Cox resigned as president of the European Movement in May 2013.
On 15 September 2010, Pat Cox supported the new initiative Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the drive toward federalisation of the European Union.
In June 2011, Irish media reported that Pat Cox, who had previously said he wanted to stand as an independent candidate in 2011's Irish presidential election, was seeking to join Fine Gael to get the party's nomination.
On 20 May 2004, Pat Cox was awarded the Charlemagne Prize for his achievements with regard to the enlargement of the European Union and for his work in promoting greater EU democratisation.