Bertie Ahern proved in Belfast that he could live down the praise of his fatally-flawed predecessor, Charles Haughey. Mr Ahern may well have been as devious and cunning as Mr Haughey believed; in the multi-party discussions on the future of Northern Ireland, he showed that he could be imaginative and courageous, too.
It took imagination, courage and tenacity to do what Mr Haughey and others in Fianna Fail had long promised but, for fear of old ghosts and new ground, failed to achieve.
On arrival as leader, and again when he became Taoiseach, Mr Ahern made a point of reminding audiences that he'd promised another - perhaps more difficult - transformation.
This was a break with what had come to be considered custom and practice in some sections of the party, to the dismay and embarrassment of others who remembered commitments, not only to national unity, but to a fairer society in the Republic.
The custom and practice, which began with mohairsuited ministers and moneyed allies enjoying the high life in the 1960s, fell to earth with a thud last summer when Mr Haughey finally admitted that he'd lied, lied and lied again about his finances to the McCracken tribunal.
The reappointment of Ray Burke seemed at odds with Mr Ahern's new-found high-mindedness. But the Taoiseach convinced many with his wide-eyed assurances that suspicions cast on his old friend had been thoroughly examined and satisfactorily allayed.
Mary Harney, too, seemed content, now that everyone had been given a clean bill of health by Mr Ahern - whose word she was pleased to accept - and by some of his most trusted lieutenants.
Dermot Ahern had been to London; the books at FF's offices in Mount Street had never been more thoroughly scrutinised; Mr Burke himself had been questioned by Mr Ahern and had assured his leader that everything was in order.
The only begrudgers, it seemed, were those who blamed the Irish Independent's appropriately hard-nosed editorial favouring an FF-Progressive Democrats coalition ("It's Payback Time") for their failure to retain office.
All of that was less than a year ago, and the sounds you now hear are of birds coming home to roost. The Independent flaps its wings in distress and Ms Harney grits her teeth at having been kept in the dark until the last minute.
Mr Ahern is doing his best to recapture the breezy confidence of last year's election campaign, when he met more people and fewer questions than any politician since Alfie Byrne.
But he manages at every appearance to sound more like Mr Haughey or Albert Reynolds and, on occasion, even less convincing than either.
I'm speaking here of the Mr Haughey we knew - and never trusted - not the man who finally ran out of people to blame for his misfortune and acolytes to nurse his wounded pride.
It's the tone and style that's so familiar. No doubt there's a school where senior members of Fianna Fail take lessons from some master of excuses and evasion, the Bart Simpson of politics.
Every hour on the hour, since the publication of Magill, the lines are repeated - by the Aherns, Bertie and Dermot, Michael Woods, Mary O'Rourke, Brian Cowen and, no doubt, others whom I haven't heard.
The lines are the FF version of Bart Simpson's "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove a thing." They suggest some misunderstanding: "Oh, you mean that meeting. That payment. That cheque. That £30,000."
The trouble is this isn't a cartoon. There is no misunderstanding. And, given the rate at which John Bruton, Ruairi Quinn, Pat Rabbitte and Alan Shatter have been picking holes in it, it's no wonder the Government's case is in tatters.
The Taoiseach's announcement last night that all Departments were to be put on Burke alert - reporting any decision in which the former minister had been involved - is an attempt to stop the unravelling.
Until then, Mr Ahern and his colleagues had simply been insulting the intelligence of an electorate which has already shown its contempt for politics and politicians in the low turnout for the referendums.
Ministers made matters worse by claiming that Mr Ahern's inquiries, conducted either before Mr Burke's appointment or at the time of his departure, were serious attempts to get at the truth of allegations, some of which had been in wide circulation for many years.
Dermot Ahern went to London to interview one man, and learned nothing he could rely on. He told Mr Quinn on Prime Time that he inquired no further.
The claim that FF should be credited with passing information to the Flood tribunal (on planning) was even more ridiculous. As Mr Shatter pointed out, the tribunal went to the courts and won an order for discovery; to have disobeyed it would have been to invite action by the courts.
The Taoiseach said the first he heard of a £30,000 payment to Mr Burke by a Fitzwilton subsidiary, Rennicks, was in March. Then he admitted that Dick Spring might have told him about an anonymous letter on the issue last autumn. He wasn't sure.
But even in March it doesn't seem to have struck him that he might have done anything more urgent than wait for the Flood tribunal to take its course.
And he waited until this week, on the eve of Magill's publication, to tell the trusting Tanaiste what had been going on.
But, even by the standards of Fianna Fail and Fitzwilton, the £30,000 paid to Mr Burke, in a cheque made out to "cash" and handed to the minister in his own home, was of high significance.
For this was no ordinary minister and no everyday donor.
Mr Burke, as Mr Bruton pointedly told the Dail, issued licences for the TV transmission system MMDS and in the late 1980s awarded 19 out of 29 licences to Princes Holdings, "a company associated with Independent Newspapers plc which is controlled by Dr Tony O'Reilly."
SO THE companies are part of a network which is richer than Goodman, more influential than Dunnes, with multiple interests and a powerful political weapon at its disposal, a group of newspapers with a dominant role in the Irish newspaper industry.
Fitzwilton insists that it contributes to political parties to support the democratic process; that the money paid to Mr Burke was intended for Fianna Fail; and that the cheque was made out to cash because Mr Burke wanted it that way.
If these affairs are referred to the Flood or Moriarty tribunals, the method of payment, as well as the precise reasons for it, will no doubt be subject to more detailed examination.
Mr Justice McCracken wrote in his report on payments to politicians and to Mr Haughey in particular: "If politicians are to give an effective service to all their constituents, or to all the citizens of the State, they must not be under financial obligation to some constituents or some citizens only."