Without doubt, Blair has made serious mistakes in recent years. Those mistakes will have almost certainly impacted negatively on something he values very highly . . . his place in the history books. But, if this doesn't sound like a contradiction in terms, he has made those mistakes for the right reasons.

Iraq continues to haunt his premiership and has been the main reason that it is now a question of when, and not if, he makes way for Gordon Brown. But Blair led . . . a word so often absent from the Irish political lexicon . . . his country into the war in Iraq because he passionately believed it was the right thing to do. Hindsight clearly tells us it was not, even if nobody can seriously argue that the world is not a better place without Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq. But Blair's motives were honourable and just. And to judge by the way he has aged in recent years, this fundamentally decent man has not borne that responsibility lightly.

Now he is being hammered for his handling of the Middle Eastern crisis. Again he has made mistakes but, as Friday's editorial in the London Times pointed out, these have largely been "errors of rhetoric".

His critics, in virtually the same breath, accuse him of being Bush's poodle and yet demand that he do something to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East.

As prime minister, Blair does not have the luxury of being able to sound off on what is a highly complex situation. He could have looked for easy headlines that would have placated many in his own party. But, as the Times editorial pointed out, calls for Blair to level the "disproportionate" charge at Israel, while very understandable in the circumstances, are misplaced. "Anyone interested in engaging with the protagonists rather than indulging themselves would best deploy more constructive and less loaded terms, " it said. We should be glad to have Blair inside the tent, as a voice of reason, even if it does mean he is getting peed on from a height for being there.

The British prime minister has many critics of his stance on the Middle East, but he is determinedly sticking to his guns. Of course, Blair does not have a monopoly on wisdom, but is there not something admirable about a leader who will remain true to his convictions under such enormous pressure?

But then Blair has never been one for easy options. Three years ago, giving one of the finest political speeches of modern times at his party conference, he offered a fascinating insight into his modus operandi. Under serious pressure after Gordon Brown had given a speech reaffirming traditional Labour values, distancing himself from New Labour and the war in Iraq, Blair eschewed the easy option of giving the rank and file what they wanted to hear. "I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear. The time to trust a politician most is not when they're taking the easy option. . . Leadership comes by instinct. I believe the British people will forgive a government mistake, will put the media onslaught in more perspective than we think, but what they won't forgive is cowardice in the face of a challenge, " he told the conference.

The speech was peppered with the words 'I believe in' . . . New Labour, the war in Iraq, the euro, the abolition of hereditary peers, public service reform. Contrast that with Bertie Ahern or, the alternative taoiseach, Enda Kenny. What do they believe in? What are their convictions?

What are they passionate about?

Blair's enemies in the British Labour party have short memories. When he took over the party, Labour had been out of office for the best part of two decades and had just failed to win a general election that seemed impossible to lose. Party members may go all misty eyed and refer to traditional Labour values, but to the electorate traditional Labour values equated to the winter of discontent, when a Britain ruled by the trade unions seemed to be in terminal decline.

Blair's achievement in turning his party into the natural party of government is truly remarkable. His mistakes have been large ones, but so have his achievements.

He is twice the politician that Gordon Brown or Blair-lite David Cameron will ever be. In that brilliant party conference speech, he concluded that "all you can do in a modern world, so confusing with its opportunities and hazards, is to decide what is the right way and try to walk it. It's not being out of touch. . . It's the only leadership I can offer." Any Irish politician who came close to living up to that message would get my vote.