TWO days before polling, on June 4th, Dick Spring said that, for the first time in Ireland's history, the people were being asked to choose between a centre left and a centreright government.
But when the dust finally settled, the people had picked the centre parties. On the one hand, the Labour Party and Democratic Left were hammered, and on the other, the Progressive Democrats Party lost half its seats.
The big winners were Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the traditional parties of the centre. Fianna Fail won an extra nine seats, with a marginal increase in its vote and brilliant constituency management and is now preparing to enter government. Fine Gael increased its vote by 3 per cent, took an extra eight seats, and is resigned to opposition.
It would seem that voters resisted the ideological left and right wing elements that coloured both coalition arrangements in favour of safety and a more conservative approach.
After every hurricane there comes a time to clear up the wreckage. And members of the parliamentary Labour Party met at Leinster House during the week to assess the damage, console one another and prepare for the future.
Their 16 seat loss was so devastating that the full implications have not yet been absorbed. So it was a case of "One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus" as they picked their way through the wreckage.
One of the first tasks was to appoint Brendan Howlin to replace Brian Fitzgerald as party whip. Roisin Shorthall took over from Joe Costello as vicechairman.
And then they grappled with nominations for next month's Seanad elections.
Former Ministers Niamh Bhreathnach, Eithne Fitzgerald, Joan Burton and Toddy O'Sullivan will attempt to continue their careers in the Upper House. But there is competition from a number of former TDs and from some of the eight outgoing Labour Party senators.
With only five Labour nominations available and up to 13 aspiring candidates, there will be some tough infighting before the party's general council makes a decision next Wednesday. Even then, only four of the five candidates may win seats.
Democratic Left is in much the same situation. Joe Sherlock won a seat in the Seanad against considerable odds in 1992 and may wish to try again. At the same time, Eric Byrne and Kathleen Lynch are considering their options.
Fitting into an opposition role will be particularly difficult for Labour at this time. The trauma of losing Civil Service backup usually paralyses former ministers for the first few months of a new Dail. And seven of the Labour Party's 17 TDs have had no experience of the opposition benches at all, having come to Leinster House in 1992. They will face a rough learning curve.
Democratic Left has its own problems. Its four TDs will have to shake off their ministerial auras and get back to the nitty gritty of submitting Dail questions and carrying out policy research and development with minimal support.
They will also be subjected to the siren call of the Labour Party as Mr Spring and his followers cast around for ways to maximise the political impact of social democratic policies in the years ahead. The last 2 1/2 years in government brought the two parties closer together, but there is still a deal of suspicion about.
One Labour Party source said there was a reasonable prospect that the parties would be able to work more closely together in opposition than they had before.
There was no easy answer about policy. The Labour Party's approach would depend to a large extent on the kind of government that unfolded from the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats alliance. The issues would include privatisation, public spending and cuts in services and these would have to be carefully assessed. New policy initiatives and directions would come later.
There is little recrimination within the party over its failed electoral strategy, which ruled out an alliance with Fianna Fail after the election. And there is no overt challenge to Dick Spring's leadership.
But there is deep unhappiness with the election result. And blame has been fixed by a number of unsuccessful candidates on the close liaison which developed between the Rainbow parties, blurring the identity of Labour.
The party, they said, should have campaigned nationally on its contribution to education, the arts and ethics in public life. It should have expressed a particular vision. But its space had been encroached upon and it had lost out to Fine Gael and to Independents.
The official view is: "On this occasion a more independent stance wasn't open to us because of what happened in 1992. We could not leave the Fianna Fail option open, while seeking the reelection, of the Rainbow Coalition.
Proinsias De Rossa displayed no enthusiasm for the embrace of Labour in the past. And, in the immediate aftermath of the election, he appeared to banker after a resumption of the relationship Democratic Left had forged in opposition with Fine Gael from 1992 to 1994.
A party source believed John Bruton had been genuine when he espoused caring policies of social inclusion during the election campaign. The Taoiseach was "a man who was prepared to change his mind in response to reasoned argument", he said, and Mr De Rossa had a genuine impact on his thinking.
There was a view within Democratic Left that the present three Government parties should cooperate to the maximum degree possible in the new Dail, challenging Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats. At the same time, the parties should have the flexibility and the freedom to pursue their own agendas.
Such an approach was especially attractive, a spokesman said, because the incoming government was "so heavily dependent on Independents and may not last the course".
John Bruton would welcome such a development. And it is a racing certainty that the Fine Gael leader will make overtures to both the Labour Party and Democratic Left in the coming weeks with a view to continuing the Rainbow alliance in opposition.
The Taoiseach is determined to adopt the caring ethos of the outgoing Government as the basis for future Fine Gael strategy. And, as a consequence of the united campaign the three parties just fought, it will be some months, at least, before the rainbow fades.