`I always thought I'd be a great Taoiseach, otherwise I would never have put myself forward for the leadership of Fine Gael." Peter Barry, former Minister for Foreign Affairs and arguably the most gentlemanly leader Fine Gael never had, is reflecting on a political career rich in anecdote - and some regrets - on the eve of an extraordinary valediction in his honour in his hometown of Cork.
Tonight a parade of past - and the present - leaders of his party will throng the Rochestown Park Hotel along with such luminaries as John Hume and Seamus Mallon to say "Hail and Farewell" to one of their number, who in a lifelong career won respect across the political divide.
This week the tributes have come thick and fast. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is generous in his acknowledgment that Barry did much to initiate the dialogue on Northern Ireland in which he and his colleagues are currently engaged. "It is generally recognised that his term as Minister for Foreign Affairs was one of the most successful for Ireland and that his personal contribution as joint chairman of the Inter-Governmental Conference - and his membership of the British-Irish Parliamentary Body - did much to pave the way for the present peace process."
Whether as Lord Mayor of Cork, as Tanaiste, or as Minister in four diverse departments, Peter Barry always brought great credit to himself, his family, his city, and his party. Barry, the Taoiseach added, could be mightily pleased that with the election of his daughter Deirdre Clune the family is heading for 50 years of committed representation in the Dail.
When Deirdre was elected to Barry's seat in Cork South Central, she represented the third generation of her family to enter national politics. From 1954 to 1965, his father, Tony, was a member of the Oireachtas and also a Lord Mayor of Cork.
The Taoiseach thanked Barry's family for having afforded him the "time, space and energy," to give so much to his city and his country.
All this praise sits somewhat uneasily on the man himself, a naturally reticent individual. When asked a simple question he gives a straight and simple answer. Did he not think that he would have made a better party leader than either Alan Dukes or John Bruton? Was he not the obvious person to succeed Garret FitzGerald?
"Well," says Barry, "I put myself forward and they chose not to elect me - I suppose that's all you can say."
Recriminations? There is the palpable sense of an unrealised mission. But there is an even more powerful sense of a steady hand at the tiller: the hand of one whose belief in the democratic way of things guaranteed that he would accept the outcome of that leadership battle come what may - and go on from there.
"Of course I was disappointed. I went for the job but I didn't get it. Afterwards, I worked quite easily with Alan - in politics, you have to put set-backs behind you. Naturally, there was a sense of regret but life goes on."
When in 1987 Alan Dukes won the leadership of Fine Gael, many of the old guard, and some of the new, felt strongly that the mantle should have passed to Barry. How close was the vote?
"It was never revealed - the voting in Fine Gael is not usually released - so I'll never know." But supposing he could have found out and discovered that he'd lost that coveted high office by just one vote? "Maybe I'd have found that my own was the only vote cast in my favour - that's the other possibility," is his modest answer.
Now approaching his 70th birthday, Peter Barry remains chairman of Barry's Tea, one of the most successful companies in the city and perhaps the State. But while some might call him a merchant prince of Cork, in his own words he's something simpler: The Teataster. He still likes to travel to the tea plantations, but these days takes only what he calls the "nicer" trips. In reply to queries about his wealth he has replied with one of those great understatements: "I'm comfortable."
PETER Barry entered politics in 1967 when he was elected to Cork Corporation. Two years later, he was in the Dail. He was not defeated in any subsequent election.
But he is best remembered as architect of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. This was brokered in 1985 out of the ashes of the memorable "out, out, out" press conference in Dublin, when the then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, astonished not just her general audience, but some of her own advisors and - not least - the Irish government.
Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach, and friend, says that Barry's role in bringing the SDLP with him during the difficult Anglo-Irish Agreement negotiations was seminal. "I trusted him implicitly on the Northern Ireland question - I would have trusted Peter with anything. Not only was he able to bring the SDLP on board but he won the trust of senior British politicians at the time."
And had Peter Barry become Taoiseach, would he have made a good one? "Yes, I think he would. There is no doubting the fact that he had leadership qualities. But after I left office I stayed out of that. I didn't take sides."
Is it true that Barry once told his former leader that he'd have made a better Taoiseach than Garret himself? "No comment, but yes, we did enjoy a very frank relationship," laughs Garret.
Sean Donlon, former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and former Ambassador to Washington, is another person with no doubts about Peter Barry's contribution to the modern Irish State. To Donlon, Barry was the key figure in the development of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. "Margaret Thatcher was at her most difficult - in practice, we had to work around her rather than with her. Peter Barry built up very good relations with the Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, and with Tom King, Secretary for Northern Ireland, as well as with George Schultz, the US Secretary for State under Ronald Reagan.
"The combination of his contacts with these three was crucial and ultimately made the difference. He was also able to bring the SDLP along despite their misgivings. To his great credit, he did so." Unlike Michael Collins, concludes Donlon, Barry did the deal in London - and sold it back home.
One of the things SDLP leader, John Hume, dwells upon is that since 1968 when he first met Peter Barry, Barry made a point of visiting the North to find out at first hand what was going on. Hume also sees Barry as instrumental in the development of the Anglo-Irish Agreement because of his powers of negotiation, "although he never took credit for it".
When Barry was Minister for Education, the current Fine Gael leader, John Bruton, was his junior Minister. That was 1977, when Garret FitzGerald assumed the leadership of Fine Gael. "Peter Barry's style was not a strident one - you could say it was more gentlemanly, but underneath, there was a man of steel," says Bruton.
"He knew what he wanted and you knew where you stood. His approach was vital and most effective in Anglo-Irish relations. He could get people to agree when others might not have been able to do so. He had a high degree of respect for the views of the other person. His business acumen stood to him. Running a highly successful company he gathered good people around him and let them get on with things - while retaining control."
To John Cushnahan, former leader of the Alliance Party in the North - now an MEP based in Limerick - one of Barry's major strengths was in allaying nationalist suspicions when Garret FitzGerald was signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement in Hillsborough: "The presence of Peter Barry, with his impeccable nationalist credentials, was a vitally important stabilising factor in delivering nationalist support for the agreement both at home and abroad."
It is also the period in a long political career that Peter Barry himself will remember best.
And if, in the words of Tip O'Neill, "All politics is local", what has been Barry's contribution in his own patch?
Barry brought Hugh Coveney into politics in 1979. They had business interests together - and Barry was casting about for a new Fine Gael candidate in Cork. Having headed the poll in the local government election that year, Coveney was elected to the Dail in 1981.
Ask Coveney what Peter Barry did for Cork and the floodgates open. "Bord Gais retained its headquarters in Cork because of his influence. The Swansea/Cork Ferry would not be running today if he hadn't got involved. He was a key figure in making the Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth happen. His behind-the-scenes work when Murphy's Brewery was in trouble led to Heineken taking it over. The extension to the runway at Cork Airport has his imprint. The Cork Dental Hospital is still in Cork because of his efforts. He was one of the main movers behind the Cork Land Use and Transportation Study, and through all of that, remarkably, he ran a business."
When he catches his breath, Coveney offers an illumination. In his opinion, once the FG leadership battle had been lost, his mentor lost the appetite for politics.
When Barry retired from politics he was loath to put pressure on his own family to continue the tradition. It was Coveney who persuaded Deirdre to stand for election.
But life isn't all about politics and Peter Barry has led a very full life. Whatever the dynamics of tonight's laudatory event, Peter Barry has in his own mind one message he wants to get across: the contribution to all he did made by his wife Margaret: "In everything I did, Margaret was an equal partner."