Theresa Ahearn's death was not a surprise but it came as a great shock none the less. We all knew she had been bravely battling illness since 1997. We had watched with admiration as she seemed to come through the first bout, shared her joy with her on her return to the House and then looked on in growing despair as she fought her last doomed battle.
Theresa Ahearn had many very fine qualities, but it was her grace, humour and courage in her last fight which will be an abiding memory for those of us who knew her. Theresa knew she was dying. She knew she was leaving behind her beloved Liam, her sons Patrick, Garret, Liam and Scott, but instead of despair she showed fortitude of a most extraordinary kind. She called in her friends, mixing sharp political advice with personal farewells, ensuring that her political as well as her personal affairs were left fully in order.
It is only four months since Theresa Ahearn was fully immersed in the South Tipperary by-election. She showed then none of the ambivalence which usually afflicts TDs facing a vacancy in their own constituency.
Instead, she was genuinely behind Tom Hayes, spearheading the fund-raising and pouring herself enthusiastically into the campaigning. Tom Hayes never had to look over his shoulder because he knew that Theresa Ahearn was out there in front, 100 per cent so.
Theresa Ahearn belonged unashamedly to the Just Society wing of Fine Gael. She was influenced by Garret FitzGerald while at UCD and brought her sane feminism and radicalism with her to her politics in South Tipperary. It was a view of the world that was not always appreciated, but she battled on, cutting her teeth as director of elections, then as a councillor and finally winning a Dail seat in 1989.
She managed to combine her progressive views with a deep attachment to her party's traditions and core values. She was born into Fine Gael and would always vigorously defend her party.
But it was not a question of "my party right or wrong". She expected high standards and was forthright in condemnation when she felt such standards were not maintained. She contributed to debate at all levels and was listened to, not least because her views were seen to be truthful and unadorned.
She had a particular concern for the disabled. Drapier has personal experience of canvassing houses in South Tipperary in the June by-election and being told "This is a Theresa Ahearn house" - not Fine Gael but Theresa Ahearn.
On closer inquiry he found that invariably there was a handicapped person in that house on whose behalf Theresa had fought long and often bruising battles with the authorities, not just to ensure that full rights were delivered, but delivered with dignity and often with a little extra.
Theresa Ahearn was always good company. She took pride in her appearance and dressed impeccably. Even at late-night votes after a long day in the sweaty atmosphere of Leinster House she looked elegant and composed. She enjoyed the gossip, the chat in the members' bar or in the restaurant, the banter and the political intrigue. She had a sharp eye for pretence and could puncture pomposity with a telling phrase.
Today her colleagues from all parties and people from all over the country will gather in her family church in Grange to pay their final respects. We will be saying goodbye to a friend who died far too young, to somebody who loved and enriched public life. Each of us will have our own memory, but for all of us the memory of her courage, humour and fortitude over the past few weeks will endure. To Liam, Patrick, Garret, young Liam and Scott go our deepest sympathy.
What are we to make of Sile de Valera's call for a major debate on Europe and Bertie Ahern's immediate and emphatic endorsement of the need for such a debate?
Not much, was the general consensus in Leinster House this week. It's not that such a debate might not go astray, and certainly people like Anthony Coughlan of the Irish National Platform had long been asking some searching questions, questions which have up to now been too easily brushed aside by the professional Eurocrats.
No. Drapier is all for such a debate, but he is sceptical about the timing of the call. Bertie Ahern is the person who promised a referendum, no less, before Ireland would enter Partnership for Peace - a promise thrown in the face of the electorate when the time to enter Partnership for Peace came. Why no debate then?
Again, as the cynics pointed out this week, Bertie leads a party so well established in Europe that it could not muster even a handful of votes to get Hugh O'Flaherty past the first hurdle with the EIB.
The simple fact is that the Government has a European policy. If there are genuine proposals for change let us hear them and let us see what their status is. If it is a real debate, fair enough, but not a distraction from what most people see as the real issues facing the Government this week.
The most important such issue is the fragility of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
To a certain extent we are watching a set piece with many of the steps carefully choreographed as each side goes through the motions. We have seen it many times before.
In the past agreement has inevitably been hammered out, to general relief all round. This time Drapier is not so sure such choreography is possible. There is no inevitability of ultimate success.
It is going to require all of Bertie Ahern's legendary negotiating skills to resolve this one. The real question at issue may well be not just the survival of this PPF but the survival of the partnership process.
This process has been one of the great successes of modern Irish politics, but even as PPF was being tied up there were some who doubted if it would run its full course, and there were many more who doubted if we would ever see another such agreement.
No certainty either as to the outcome of an early general election on the basis of the Evening Herald's IMS poll this week. A Fianna Fail overall majority is clearly out of the question; small gains for Fine Gael and Labour, but not enough to guarantee any majority there; no respite for the PDs; and most of all a massive tranche of undecided voters. The voters are moving, but not in any particular direction, and most of them don't want a general election just yet.
On that issue opinion is hardening in here to the view that the Government will run its course, at least until late in 2001. Where else, it is asked, do the PDs go, and no one doubts the rock-hard solidity of the four Independents. That may well be so, but we are back to the tribunals and with the tribunals come "events".
And once events start happening there are no certainties.