MR CARLOS Salinas de Gortari is hugely impressed with the personal strength of Michelle Smith, and is florid in his tributes to Irish hospitality. "They trust a lot, the Irish," he says.
The politically disgraced former president of Mexico - whose eldest brother, Raul, is in prison on suspicion of involvement in a political murder and of embezzling at least $120 million in a state agency job Carlos gave him - is an experienced interviewee.
Being "very respectful of the new government of President [Ernesto] Zedillo" and of the Mexican convention that former presidents should act with reserve, he declines to answer political questions.
Only weeks after he left power in December 1994, the peso collapsed, forcing the World Bank and United States to bail his country out with $50 billion.
Wasn't it a paradox that given his youthful left wing background he had not been able to see coming the 1994 Chiapas rebellion against neo liberalism and the North American Free Trade Agreement with the US and Canada?
"That's something I am reflecting about. . . sooner or later I will write something about it. When I do it I will share it with you."
He is staying in a rented house in Dublin - he would not indicate south or any other point of the compass for the past five months. But he denied a report that he was living in a house near Shannon, owned by Mr Tony Ryan of Ryanair and former GPA fame, and longtime Mexican honorary consul in Ireland. He says he intends eventually to return to Mexico, when it is convenient for him to do so.
He has an intense interest in all things Irish and in the links, artistic, political and literary, between Ireland and Mexico. He follows the politics of Northern Ireland closely.
"The strength of your culture is a reflection of your need to be sovereign. It is so like Mexico ... I am so impressed with Ireland." Ireland and Mexico had a permanent struggle in relation to empire, both have "one small stream" - the Irish Sea, the Rio Grande - separating them from powerful neighbours, he said.
He is interested in the Irish experience of community development, praised in a recent OECD report. He wants to "drop in on" some community self help housing programmes. These are reminders of something he's proud of, the solidaridad self help/ state schemes of his presidency.
But awkward questions about how an economy, many think he designed for a country of his imagination came to grief within weeks of his leaving power, will have to await a full interview with The Irish Times in a few weeks.
"I would only say [now] that time is required to get a proper perspective," says Carlos Salinas.