Ireland will feature at the British party conferences which get underway next week with the Liberals in Harrowgate, followed by Labour at Bournemouth the week after, and then the Tories in Blackpool. But we won't feature very prominently. British politicians have their own concerns at the moment.
The Liberals will have a hail the chief gathering in homage to new leader, Scottish journalist Charles Kennedy, who is an old friend of Ireland and a frequent visitor.
Labour will be concerned with personalities - most particularly, who can Tony Blair find to stop Red Ken Livingstone getting the prized party nomination for Lord Mayor of London and how he will handle his long-expected cabinet reshuffle? It is common knowledge that had David Trimble not demanded her sacking, Mo Mowlam would have been out of the North by now and installed in a high-spending ministry, as she would like.
The Tories will also be concerned with the mayoralty and the fierce battle between Lord Archer and Steven Norris, two of the most colourful personalities in British politics, for the nomination. The coming by-election in Kensington and Chelsea, Michael Portillo's bid to return to Westminster and leader William Hague's continuing failure to impress are the issue that will dominate in Blackpool.
But, as always, Irish diplomats will be in attendance and keeping a beady eye not just on unfolding developments, but on the mood of the conference on matters relating to Ireland. There was some relief in Dublin when the Patten report raised hardly a ripple among the Conservatives, but then Chris Patten is one of theirs. Now the worry is that the criticism expected from both the conference platform and floor on the continuing prisoner releases may be such as to lead to a breakdown in the bipartisan policy at Westminster, which has helped so much in the North over the years.