Only last week at the European Parliament in Strasbourg it was the old combative Padraig Flynn, a political animal to his fingertips, bridling at what he saw as the Commission's ineffectiveness in fighting back against the Parliament.
He recalled the old battles back home, the heaves against Haughey, the need to count every last vote in every last cumann . . .
He even spoke enigmatically of those who expected to be back in the next Commission and of those who were vulnerable. Not a cloud, it seemed, on the horizon. The truth is that Padraig Flynn has been one of the success stories of the current Commission. Seen as a man with a somewhat theatrical, over-the-top style, often parodied hilariously at the annual press review, he is nevertheless credited both with handling well a significant brief and a substantial budget, and of fighting well in Ireland's corner. Mr Flynn has served in the Commission since 1993. He succeeded Mr Ray MacSharry but got the social affairs portfolio instead of agriculture, giving him charge of an annual budget of some £6.5 billion, some one third of structural funding. Mr Flynn worked well with the then Commission president, Jacques Delors. The latter's ideas for a white paper on reforming labour markets were seized upon eagerly by a directorate which was finding it difficult to make the case that EU action on employment gave added value to national efforts. By making the case for structural changes rather than macroeconomic pump-priming, Delors was able to unite left and right, sceptic and enthusiast.
The themes enunciated then would be developed by him into practical form over the next few years, and when the Amsterdam Treaty negotiators responded to widespread concerns about rising unemployment by including a clause providing for mutual monitoring by member-states of reform of their labour markets, Flynn saw an opportunity for the Commission to drive the agenda forward.
When heads of government at the 1997 Luxembourg summit agreed to press ahead with such monitoring ahead of implementation of the new treaty, Flynn moved fast to prevent any subsequent backsliding by member-states by drafting ambitious guidelines and targets.
He sees the process, with some justification, as his major achievement, arguing that he has put in place in employment policy the sort of structures which were successfully used to lay the basis for the euro.
But there has also been an impressive legislative programme: provisions for works councils for multinational companies, with more on national companies in the pipeline, parental leave, equality of treatment for part-time workers and soon for those on fixed-term contracts, limits on working time for those excluded from earlier directives, and an important extension to equality provisions for women at work. The rights of workers in companies involved in takeovers were also copper-fastened.
His relationship with MEPs has survived a distinctly shaky start in 1994 when he was ambushed at hearings on the new Commission with questions about what he had said about Mary Robinson. Attempts to strip him of the women's affairs portfolio were unsuccessful and over time he began to win the grudging respect of the Parliament. Mr Flynn has embraced his reform programme with zeal. Irish diplomats also acknowledge that he has been at least as diligent as any other Commissioner in making sure that the national case on specific issues, such as corporation tax, is heard in the Commission.
All Commissioners tread a well-understood grey line between their oath of impartiality and their role as national listening posts for capitals and it is unlikely that Dublin will be complaining about Mr Flynn's accessibility.
His relationship with Dublin has been good apart from a brief period in 1995, after his nomination for a full term but before the final confirmation of the new Commission.
The succession of Mr John Bruton as Taoiseach led to speculation that he would be replaced and some considerable nervousness on his own part. But his appointment was eventually confirmed and Mr Flynn went out of his way to make the members of the new government welcome.
Widely seen as a hard-working commissioner who is respected by those who work with him, Mr Flynn's success in Brussels rests also in large measure on his willingness to surround himself with, and take advice from, a cabinet of experts rather that politicos.
Yet, ironically, the lack of that political back-up may in the end be precisely what brought about what may turn out to have been a disastrously ill-advised Late Late performance.