FORMER TÁNAISTE and Justice Minister Michael McDowell has refused to rule out a return to politics. McDowell was speaking at the MacGill Summer School, where he was asked a question on whether he would rejoin Fine Gael, a party he left in the mid-1980s when he became a founding member of the Progressive Democrats.

McDowell replied: “I don’t propose discussing this on a platform in Glenties with all these cameras around me.”

He is currently working at the Bar and is widely believed to be one of the country’s most successful barristers.

McDowell lost his seat in the 2007 general election, when John Gormley took the final seat in the Dublin South East constituency.

A return to politics by McDowell may stir up trouble between Enda Kenny and sitting Fine Gael TD for Dublin South East, Lucinda Creighton.

Creighton launched a public attack on Kenny yesterday.

McDowell also said the government should extend the hand of friendship to Orangemen by making July 12 a national holiday.

Commentary from the MacGill school can be followed on Twitter. A webcast of speeches at the school is also online.