Like so many, O ' Driscoll ' s footballing life changed direction with his enrolment at Blackrock College, whose Lions alumni of famous old boys - Fergus Slattery, Brendan Mullin, Hugo MacNeill and many more - lends clout to its claim to be the most famous rugby school in Ireland.
O'Driscoll said: 'I played soccer and gaelic but once I went there, rugby took over.'
While his father, Frank, played for Ireland in a non-Test match against Argentina, his Manchester-based uncles, Barry and John, also a Lion, won more than 30 caps between them during the 70s and 80s.
Their nephew extended the tradition in a way which left the world gasping at the audacity of his achievement. If his hat-trick against France in Paris last year served early notice that a rare talent had arrived, he confirmed it last week to justify comparison to Mike Gibson, the 60s and 70s Lion widely considered the best all-round threequarter of his day.
Just as O'Driscoll politely acknowledges similar acclamation from David Campese, he does not waste time poring over his reviews.
He said: 'I am not Mike Gibson and I have never tried to be. I know he was a quality player who went on a lot of Lions tours. Not long ago I was asked to go on a public question-and-answer forum with him but I decided not to. We are different players from different eras. I d o n' t t h i n k t h o s e s o r t o f comparisons mean anything.' An under-stated self-confidence and a knack to keep smiling give revealing clues to O'Driscoll's propulsion into the stratosphere of the global game.
An Irish colleague said: 'He's always laughing and joking, even on the bus going to the match when everyone's tense.'
By half-time during the fourth match of this tour, against New South Wales in Sydney, O'Driscoll was a little less cool than normal.
He said: 'I had two poor games. I sat in the dressing room and thought I needed something to get my confidence up and my tour going.
'My expectations are higher than a lot of people's and the pressure comes from myself but it's not life or death. You don't make yourself feel sick because these Test matches are great occasions. Lions tours don't come around very often and, when they do, you want to try to remember them as being special.'
