'Never resign. It's only a 24-hour wonder" was Charles Haughey's general philosophy, imparted years ago to this member of staff.
Only a handful of ministers have resigned on policy grounds; Paddy Smith as minister for agriculture in 1964, over Lemass's alleged appeasement of the trade unions; Kevin Boland in 1970, in protest against the dismissal of ministers in the Arms Crisis; and Frank Cluskey in 1983, over the failure to nationalise Dublin Gas.
Last Thursday week, in the Wesleyan Chapel and Arts Centre, Bailieborough, run by Paddy Smith's great-niece Niamh, an evening was devoted to recalling the life of the longest-serving member of the Dáil over 54 years and 17 elections between 1923 and 1977.
It illustrated the ethos, struggles and preoccupations of an earlier Fianna Fáil through the eyes of a prominent and characterful founding member. Speakers included the hale former cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Séamus Dolan, Paddy's son and former politician, Michael Smith, a local historian Aoghan Farrell, and this columnist.
From small farming stock that previously experienced evictions, Paddy Smith joined the Volunteers in 1917, and by the age of 19 was the youngest commandant in the IRA. Like his friend and ministerial colleague, Seán Moylan, Paddy was captured in 1921 by the British, tried and sentenced to death, but saved by the Truce.
Letters to a close friend and fellow officer, Johnnie McGorry, who took the opposite side in the Civil War, were read out. Smith was not impressed with the Treaty negotiations, and believed the British should have been tested more.
In November 1970, he shouted at Fine Gael across the floor: "They gave us stepping-stones, but they would not walk on them."
Paddy was interned during the Civil War. Weakened from a 41-day hunger strike with six fellow-prisoners, he was invited to stand for the Dáil in 1923. He later said there were worse ways of entering politics than with a rope round one's neck.
Dev persuaded him to join Fianna Fáil. "Nobody I ever met in my lifetime was like Dev. He was outstanding, and I never changed my opinion about him." He defended him against charges of dictatorship, saying he allowed colleagues to speak their minds and was a patient consensus-builder.
He worked closely with Dev as parliamentary secretary at a time of danger between 1939 and 1943, and regarded this as the most fulfilling period of his life.
He entered cabinet in 1947, and on return to office was minister for local government from 1951 to 1954, and again in 1957. Social conditions were a world away from what they are today. His focus was on better housing for small farmers, agricultural labourers and the urban working class.
He enlarged a provision whereby a family suffering from TB was entitled to priority only when it was living in a one-room dwelling. He argued that the need to alleviate overcrowding was acute, to provide more airspace for sleeping purposes, and to allow segregation of the sexes.
In October 1952 he had to justify the doubling of the car licence fee from 10 shillings to one pound. Not a day passed but he was asked about the condition of the roads, for grants for relief of unemployment and money for improving tourist roads.
The Road Fund amounted to £3 million, with 34,000 miles of county roads still unsurfaced, at a time when ambitious infrastructural projects were discarded as extravagances for the benefit of the wealthy.
In Agriculture, from late 1957, his priority was to increase output for export, encouraging greater productivity, grassland improvement and TB elimination.
He introduced the reactor grant. Producing better beef through AI and promotion of the dual-purpose Friesian breed were other initiatives.
Mary Daly's history of the Department of Agriculture records a message from the papal farm at Castelgandolfo looking for a suitable bull from Ireland for the herd.
Paddy Smith wrote back: "May I say how much I appreciate your consulting me on such an important matter as a Papal bull."
Negotiations with Britain to obtain better access to markets made tortuous progress. He was one of the ministers involved in supervising the Whitaker white paper of 1958 on economic development and early negotiations on EEC entry in 1962.
He had a passionate commitment to the small farm as the centre of the Irish economy and society and could not bear the thought that it was fading. The worst abuse of power he was accused of (by Noel Browne) was taking calves to market in his ministerial car.
He had difficulties with the NFA, and their habit of putting a spin on meetings and criticising the department. He was not happy with Lemass's emphasis on industry or his closeness to the unions, which he denounced on resigning as "a dishonest and incompetent tyranny".
He was not enamoured of Irish Times columnists. In 1953, after being savagely satirised, he had Brian O'Nolan, alias Myles na gCopaleen, finally removed from his Civil Service position in the Custom House.
In 1965, Smith put down a motion at the parliamentary party, criticising some ministers for lavishly entertaining John Healy of "Backbencher" fame.
Generally, in later life, he helped sort out trouble rather than create it. He was a Colley supporter and backed Lynch during the arms crisis. Nevertheless, Charles Haughey as taoiseach made the graveside oration in 1982.
In 1977, in a Sunday Independent interview, Smith admitted that his views on the North had become less ambitious, and that he would love to see "some good reasonable arrangement". He believed the Provisional IRA was "terribly foolish and harmful".
Life for a politician was different then, and Ireland has progressed a long way since.
Yet the social, egalitarian and community values of an earlier generation remain strong amidst the vast, though uneven, growth in wealth.