Drapier has a good nose for mood, and the mood he finds in Leinster House at the moment does not reassure him. Drapier has lived through many tempestuous episodes in the life of Leinster House when hard things were said, tough decisions taken and feelings ran very high indeed.
Drapier does not have to recite these episodes, except to note that things generally settled down fairly quickly in their aftermath and normal relations more or less resumed - at least until the next spat.
There is, however, something different about the present situation. The underlying mood is nasty, jittery and unpredictable. We had another rough session this week, with Emmet Stagg getting the first red card of this Dail, and a few others very lucky not to head with him for an early shower.
Drapier is surprised, too, at the vitriolic bitterness of some of the younger members, a readiness to trawl history for abusive epithets and a personal vindictiveness that Drapier finds hard to fathom. It's not as if, like an earlier and greater generation, they carry with them wounds and memories of real civil war; most have had relatively meteoric rises in politics and have no justifiable reason for personal bitterness.
So what's behind it all? Drapier suspects a large part of the reason is insecurity. The present Government is secure in the Dail but insecure within itself, certainly not an administration at ease with itself but one which has lurched, almost groggily, from one crisis to another, and for the most part under self-inflicted pressure. And when the Government is jittery and nervy, it shows and it spreads.
If this Government fails, it will not be because of Dail numbers, but for reasons much closer to home, and it is this which goes part of the way towards explaining the current bout of bad feelings, which is doing nobody any good and doing some people a lot of harm.
Nor is the witch hunt about leaks helping. Drapier has no idea who leaked the Foreign Affairs document and gives no credit to whoever did. But Drapier dismisses out of hand the charge that John Bruton or any other senior politician of any party would do such a thing - or authorise it.
Meanwhile, what are we to make of Dessie O'Malley and Michael McDowell and their campaign on Cabinet confidentiality? At first, Drapier thought it was all pretty harmless stuff - Michael being Michael and finally ditching his Cistercian vow of silence, and so much the better for all of us for his doing that, and Dessie not saying anything Dessie has not said already. Drapier was astonished, however, at the way Mary Harney took the bait and responded so sharply to Michael McDowell - even if there was a fair element of provocation. Whatever little differences there have been simmering within the PDs were now out in the open and the language of both sides seems to make reconciliation that bit more difficult. The Progressive Democrats without Michael McDowell and with Des O'Malley somewhat semi-detached is not the PDs as we knew and loved them.
As to the issues raised by the referendum, Drapier has no simple answer. He knows Dermot Gleeson spent years trying to find an acceptable legal formula and that David E. Byrne, on becoming Attorney General, found he could not better Gleeson's formula. He has yet to see a formula from Michael McDowell or Gerald Hogan, though that may be Drapier's fault rather than theirs.
He would be less than honest, however, if he didn't admit to a certain degree of confusion and wonderment at how difficult it is to translate a simple enough proposition into legal and constitutional language.
It was a week of U-turns and Drapier has always believed that if U-turns there must be, then let's have them early and if possible with a bit of style. There was little that was stylish about this week's U-turns.
There was a time when a U-turn was nothing to be much ashamed of. Sean Lemass always regarded election promises as little more than that - good while they lasted, but not to be taken too seriously.
One of the differences between the old days - 1980 is a useful bench-mark - and today is that in those days parties usually stuck to generalities - end unemployment and emigration, build more houses, "speed the plough" or whatever. Big promises but always short on detail. Today all of us write books of promises before elections, hanging hundreds of very specific commitments round our necks.
Enter Joe Jacob. Now, Joe Jacob was sitting comfortably as Leas Ceann Chomhairle when Fianna Fail made its promise to the Dundalk residents. The commitment given then was specific: "The case would be fully funded and if necessary appealed through the higher courts." In Drapier's view it was not particularly prudent in its open-endedness, but then Sellafield is a classic opposition issue. The trouble is that loud noises made in opposition do not easily translate into governmental action on this issue. Nor do the Brits play clean, with the result there is little that governments can do, much as they would like to.
Even Drapier was astonished at the speed and extent of the Government's reneging on this particular commitment. It was brazen, and Drapier does not blame Joe Jacob. He was the messenger - and he was the one who got shot.
How the Government thought it could have got away with its line of action needs some explaining. A minority government cannot afford to be arrogant, much less careless, and whichever it was, Ivan Yates saw it as a heaven-sent opportunity. Hardly had Joe Jacob given his "take it or leave it" response to the Dundalk residents than Ivan Yates had a Dail motion down and Fergus O'Dowd a similar one in the Seanad. There was no way Mildred Fox could ignore such a motion and no reason for the other Independents to oppose it. The game was over before it started, but the lesson is there.
The Independents may be sound on the big issues but don't take them for granted on the small ones, and with a hungrier and leaner Fine Gael front bench in place, not to mention Dick Spring and Pat Rabbitte, carelessness or arrogance will be punished - as it was this week.
Finally, the Presidency. Things livened up this week and the more this happens the more the focus will be on the front runners. This election will be won or lost on lower preferences, and in Drapier's view this part of the battle is still wide open - wider than the polls suggest. Twelve days is a long time in any election.