But it was that unique laugh that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar remembered in describing the former Fine Gael leader following his death at the age of 76.

“He was a man who was great company, who had a great wit, was very funny and very self-deprecating a lot of the time. I will always remembers his big laugh, it was almost infectious. If he’d laugh everyone started laughing too.”

Also infectious was his ability to bring people along with him which was particularly evident in his commitment to building peace in Northern Ireland.

An empathy with and understanding of the unionist and British perspective, came from a personal experience — the murder of Senator Billy Fox who was shot by the IRA when visiting his girlfriend in Co
Monaghan in 1974.

Bruton shared an office and even a phone line with the 35-year-old Fine Gael politician. The assassination had a lasting impact on him and defined how, as party leader many years later, he would approach peace and reconciliation.

“Billy’s good nature enabled him to cross boundaries between religions and political traditions, as it was his responsibility to do as a public representative,” Bruton told a memorial service in 2004.

“That such a man would be murdered still makes me angry. If I am still angry, I can only imagine the feelings of those much closer to him than I.”

But he was not without his detractors and his approach led him to being dubbed “John Unionist” by Fianna Fáil’s Albert Reynolds.

The ability to forge political alliances was perhaps most famously borne out in the unlikely coalition with Labour and the Democratic Left.

This Rainbow Government, formed in 1994, was remarkable for a number of reasons.

After reaching a deal with Labour and the Democratic Left, Bruton became the first person in the history of the State to be named as Taoiseach without a general election, when the coalition was formed half-way through a Dáil term.

He headed up a Cabinet full of big personalities including, on the Fine Gael side, his brother Richard; Nora Owen; Michael Lowry who would later defect from the party, and two future party leaders in Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan.

Then Labour leader Dick Spring took up the position of tánaiste and was joined at Cabinet by current President Michael D Higgins; future Labour leader Brendan Howlin, and pioneering education minister Niamh Breathnach.

Completing the three-party representation around the Cabinet table came in the form of Proinsias De Rossa.

Despite the odds and regular differences of opinion, the Rainbow Government lasted until 1997 and, in doing so, brought about significant social change through a referendum to legalise divorce.

Not shy of a fight, he faced three heaves against him, the first in 1994, shortly before he became taoiseach, and the second in 2000.

The final move on him in 2001 resulted in him stepping down. In 2004 he took up the role of EU ambassador to the United States.

Even after officially bowing out of national and international politics, which included highs and lows, Bruton remained vocal on social and international issues, writing extensively.

His service to the country continued through his involvement in the Council of State, which he sought to attend right to the end.

“Retirement? It’s not that I don’t believe in it but as long as there are opportunities to do things that I find worthwhile I’ll continue to do so,” Bruton told his local paper, the Meath Chronicle in an interview marking his 70th birthday in 2017.

His post-politics work included a stint as chair of the IFSC between 2010 and 2015 and he also sat on numerous boards including the Irish Diaspora Loan Origination Fund, the Irish Institute for International and European Affairs, and the Centre for European Policy Studies.

Highly conservative, the father of four wasn’t afraid to be unpopular, strongly advocating for a no vote in the historic referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, for example.

However, as another former taoiseach, Enda Kenny, who was appointed to Cabinet for the first time by Bruton, said “nobody could ever fault him for his integrity, or his standing for righteousness and to do the right thing”.

From wealthy farming stock, growing up, the Bruton name was to be seen on the side of haulage trains transporting cattle from the west of Ireland to be finished off on the family land in Dunboyne.

He attended the exclusive Clongowes Wood College and went to University College Dublin before qualifying as a barrister from King’s Inns, though he never practiced law.

Instead, influenced by US president John F Kennedy, he sought out a career in politics, becoming one of the youngest TDs on his election in 1969.

Remembering his colleague, former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yeats, who described Bruton as a mentor, said: “He was absolutely committed to politics, long after he left politics he would write columns, he would attend events, all on a pro-bono basis. He was a very admirable man.”

But Bruton got as much out of his continued contributions to public life claiming: “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t benefit from it, I think, but I like to be busy.”

As his career placed him on a national and international stage, he continued to relish the local side of the job and meeting people.

And, as Kenny put it, he learned a lot from “ordinary people” because “they were never afraid to speak their minds, just as he wasn’t.”

Speaking about this, Bruton admitted: “I always loved doing clinics, it was one of the things I enjoyed about politics.

“I would arrive at say 10 at night to the St Vincent de Paul hall in Oldcastle and discover there were about 10 or 15 people there to see me,” Bruton told the Meath Chronicle.

“That didn’t faze me, because it was tremendous that people would open their lives to you as a politician.

“You would learn more about other people’s lives through helping them with whatever small issue they had.

“I believe I was able to help a lot of people as much by helping them to clarify what their own problem was rather than by any string I was able to pull, if you know what I mean. It’s very often a process of helping people to understand what their options are.

“Now it is true, if you are very policy-orientated and you really don’t have the temperament for sitting in a draughty hall listening to people’s problems then politics will be more difficult for you. Fortunately, I never minded that, in fact I enjoyed sitting in a draughty hall.”

A ‘big farmer’ who understood the ‘small people’, Bruton had lifelong interest and engagement in public affairs and public service locally, nationally, and internationally right up until his death.