Drapier is not going to say much about the North this week, thus reflecting the mood in both Houses. There was much concern, considerable gloom but not much point in saying anything, knowing that the action was elsewhere, the decisions would be taken or not taken elsewhere and little heed would be paid to anything said in here.
Drapier was struck with the general sense of weariness which seems to be engulfing all the main players. One unionist MP visiting here recently told his listeners they simply did not have the stomach for more talks. He was, he said, "talked out" and Gerry Adams seemed to be suffering from the same syndrome as he reflected out loud about his own long-term plans during the week.
Another worrying feature is that both Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are beset by domestic problems. Tony Blair, in particular, is going through a specially bad patch, crowned this week by the Welsh fiasco, throwing doubt over his judgment in steamrolling Alun Michael into the job of First Secretary. He is learning the hard way what we all know - that when things start going wrong, they go very wrong indeed.
There was a sense during the week that for the first time in years, there was a significant gap between the two governments on the handling of the suspension of the Northern Executive. One of the most encouraging facts of recent times has been the genuinely good relations between Dublin and London. The last thing we can afford now would be any damaging of these good relations or a reversal to traditional entrenched positions.
Late-breaking events may yet save the day but at this point it is not looking good. Drapier can only say, more in hope than certainty, that every other crisis to date - and there have been many - has been surmounted.
More than ever, the people want the new institutions to work and therein lies the only enduring strength that matters.
It was the domestic issues, however, which took up most of our time. Bertie Ahern's problems we know all about and most of them won't go away. Dublin Castle will continue to throw up its surprises and the Taoiseach will find few of them pleasant.
There had been many rum ours at the time of the Century Radio licence award about possible favouritism. It was seen at the time as a licence to print money, but the collapse of Century took the sting out of the rumours and it slipped off the agenda. However, with the disclosure of a major donation to Ray Burke from Oliver Barry - once again in large notes, though no brown envelope and no receipt - we can see a number of factors falling into place: the capping of RTE's advertising income and the general onslaught on that station in particular.
It all raises the question as to how much more is going to emerge in Dublin Castle, how many more secretaries were asked to "mind" documents. The only certainty is more surprises.
Denis Foley went through his Gethsemane this week. At a personal level, Drapier detected a certain sympathy for a man few of us really know and who has made no enemies that Drapier knows of, but Drapier saw no sympathy at all for his decision to go on the Public Accounts Sub-Committee.
It was crass bad judgment: it let down his colleagues and parliament itself and it has certainly meant the effective end of his political career - not to mention the retribution which will follow in other places. A high price has been and will be paid and he has yet to face his Dail peers on the Members' Interests Committee. Another first he could have done without.
The debate on the Foley affair lacked real substance. It was niggling and bad-tempered. Bertie Ahern was impatient and testy and added little to our knowledge of what he knew.
Drapier noted a change in Labour tack in the debate in that party's more vigorous approach to Fianna Fail. It will be remembered that Dick Spring made much of his earlier reputation by his frontal attacks on Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds.
Labour has significantly upped the ante and is attempting to cut through the by now standard Fianna Fail spin that "all parties are at it". It says loudly that this is not so, that virtually all of those involved are senior members of Fianna Fail, that it was the culture of corruption spawned by Haughey which is at the root of the present problems and that those closely associated with Haughey must live under a cloud of suspicion until events prove otherwise.
This view was expressed most forcefully by Michael D. Higgins in one of his better speeches. He was responding to Mary Hanafin's ill-judged contribution, which hit the wrong tone. Mary Hanafin is probably the most able and independent of the younger Fianna Fail members and is too valuable to have her sent out to front for whatever the party's current embarrassment happens to be.
There are plenty of Rottweilers who would do that more willingly and to more effect. Mary Hanafin was promoted on merit and she - and the House - should be spared further such speeches.
The trouble about "mixing" it, as Labour discovered on Wednesday night, is that all parties have their embarrassments. The taunts about the "Woodchester Four" were quick to roll off Willie O'Dea's tongue and, however unfair Labour may feel the taunts, and however much its asserts that, unlike Charles Haughey, Ray Burke, John Ellis and Denis Foley, there was no personal gain involved, the counter-charges blunt the attack. In a week when Michael Keating, a former Fine Gael minister and later deputy leader of the PDs, hovered on the edges of a London criminal case, all parties know that mud can be thrown at them. It does lead to a certain amount of restraint where plain talking might be better.
Finally this week we had the sad news of the death of Tom Foxe. The word most frequently used about Tom was gentleman. He was courteous, good-humoured and very good company, especially in the late hours of a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, when, with the constituency work done, he would relax in convivial company. He had a fund of stories and was a sharp judge of human nature and was welcome in any company.
Although elected on the Roscommon hospital issue, Tom was never a single-issue politician. He was particularly well-informed on agriculture but his expertise covered virtually the full spectrum of issues. When Tom spoke in the House, he was always worth listening to.
He was hugely disappointed to lose his seat at the last general election but, more than most, he knew Roscommon was never a county for safe political seats. Drapier, like many others, will miss a good and decent man.