As Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews had a stronger preference for the symbolism of foreign policy than its contents. The idealist traditions of old Fianna Fail and of Frank Aiken, of disarmament and neutrality, of involvement in the UN and of Ireland's empathy with the Third World rather than with its rich partners of the EU and their preoccupations, were much more his focus than the nitty-gritty of day-to-day EU affairs.
What will be remembered internationally of his period in office - an office which he had cherished - will be Ireland's strong intervention in the East Timor crisis and its campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council, rather any specific intervention in routine issues in Europe.
The detail of day-to-day EU politics clearly bored him, reflected by his attendance. Rather more than his predecessors, he was willing to skip meetings of foreign ministers or cut short his attendance. One got a sense that he regarded the minutiae as matters better dealt with by the professional diplomats of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
His preoccupations with what many diplomats saw as peripheral issues meant his relationship with them was uneasy, as manifested in the correspondence revealed under the Freedom of Information Act, with the Secretary of the Department, Mr Padraic McKernan, over the management of the Department.
It was clear that at the time the Minister and his secretary were barely talking. Relations improved but the Department was bitter about the ministerial interference in the internal appointments process.
Deeply involved in the North with a traditional Fianna Fail perspective and instinctive sympathy for the nationalist cause, he was, however, somewhat overshadowed by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who was determined to maintain control of the process.
A gaffe in which he described the all-Ireland bodies as a form of "government" angered unionists who saw it as confirmation of a hidden Southern agenda.
He threw himself heart and soul into the campaign for the seat on the UN Security Council, travelling widely to canvass, for example, the smaller countries of the Caribbean, and protesting vigorously to the Italians at their late and unexpected intervention in the contest. That fight has yet to be resolved.
He is a strong supporter of the UN and insisted repeatedly during the Kosovo conflict that any military action had to be sanctioned by the Security Council. It was significant that it was the Taoiseach rather than the Minister for Foreign Affairs who was first to make clear Ireland's political support for the NATO intervention and bombing.
His lack of enthusiasm for NATO was clear and it is understood he had to be prevailed upon by Mr Ahern to support Irish accession to the Western European Union. Ireland's traditional support for nuclear disarmament was rekindled by him in a major declaration sponsored by Ireland and a number of non-aligned states in 1998.
He was willing to take up the cause of East Timor's repression by the Indonesians with a vigour that surprised European partners, travelling to the island at some personal risk and being rewarded with appointment as EU special rapporteur on the issue.
Mr Andrews was a strong supporter of Ireland's development role and also fought the corner in the WEU for the victims of the Sudanese war. He travelled to Algeria to meet the government in what he described as a venture in "personal diplomacy" in which he strongly believes.
The long-standing Irish enthusiasm for the Council of Europe was reflected in his approach to his last challenge as the current chairman of its Council of Ministers. He has just returned from the Balkans where, in that capa city, he met leaders in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
Yesterday he was in Moscow to meet the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Ivan Ivanov, to warn of Western impatience with Russian actions in Chechnya.