It is a little more than two years since Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution' that saw Viktor Yuschenko, his formerly handsome face disfigured by an assassination attempt by poisoning him with dioxide, muster public demonstrations that forced a re-run of a rigged election. Rock concerts were run in Kiev's Independence Square for 10 hours a day. A tent city grew up overnight. Support services, including food supplies, medical care and sanitation, appeared, seemingly spontaneously, to keep protesters in the streets for as long as it took. Eventually Viktor Yanukovich, the candidate backed by the thoroughly corrupt kleptocrat Leonid Kuchma, stood aside. Yuschenko won the second, fair, election.

His movement was called Pora, or "It's Time".

Ukrainians celebrated their peaceful democratic revolution by hosting the Eurovision song contest the following year. But after the world's cameras withdrew, reforms did not move as swiftly as the urgency of Pora would suggest.

The economy grew after the Orange Revolution but Ukrainians are still amongst Europe's least well-off. Average wages are around 120 a month, for those who work.

The rate of HIV infection is growing, with nearly 1.5% of the population believed to be positive, according to O'Donnell. Most infection is spread by intravenous drug users, who have a high overlap with the sex trade.

Yuschenko promised closer ties with the west. He sought accession to the World Trade Organisation and closer integration with the EU.

Both would bring an improvement of living standards for the 27% of Ukrainians who are poor.

But the Ukraine's Eurovision-winning performance remains the country's most successful foray on the European stage. The EU displays little appetite for further enlargement, making an eventual entry into the EU remote, especially for a country as poor as Ukraine.

Wages are so low that companies in neighbouring Poland view Ukraine as a source of cheap labour and outsource some manufacturing there.

Despite real economic progress . . . the country's economy grew at an average annual rate of 7% since 2000 . . . even Yuschenko's supporters began questioning his ability to move things forward.

Now Independence Square is once again filled with protest signs, albeit of hues other than orange. O'Donnell said last Wednesday he was hopeful that the crisis was under control. Protests seemed more like "a medieval pageant" than any real menace, he said. Manchester United fans had more to worry about from Roman riot cops than Ukrainian protesters did from the locals.

O'Donnell's role has been focused on tangible efforts like HIV/Aids prevention and poverty alleviation, but its most important function has been to try and help bed down normal democratic institutions in the Ukraine. No mean feat, that. Decades of Soviet repression left little instinct for responsible governance.

Progress has been made towards democratic norms, he says, but there's a long way to go.

Though he represents the UN, being Irish has helped his work. "The Irish economic miracle is seen as something of a model. Policy consistency in periods of governmental change. An attractive environment for foreign investment. EU membership." We have what they want.

At time of writing it was too early to say how Ukraine's counter-revolutionary crisis will play out. But I'm glad that people like Frank O'Donnell are there, offering a fighting chance to Ukraine's fragile hopes for a better future.