SO just what was Bertie Ahern at in Arbour Hill last Sunday? People in here are very divided, not just as to what he was at, but as to whether the whole thing will backfire on him.
Drapier trawled wide during the week and found virtual unanimity among all Government parties and the PDs. As they saw it, Fianna Fail was up to its old tricks, treating Northern Ireland as an item on the domestic agenda, a useful stick to beat the Government with. It was all too reminiscent of 1985 when Charlie Haughey sent the late Brian Lenihan to Washington to lobby against the upcoming Anglo Irish Agreement.
The question of why bipartisanship was being stretched to breaking point at this particular time was asked without there being any real answer forthcoming. The Arbour Hill speech was a reversion to hardline greenery, in its setting, in its tone of delivery and in its content. Never mind what Ray Burke said about the Northern aspect being only a small part of a wide ranging speech. It was designed to draw blood and draw blood it did.
But whose blood? The reference to John Redmond was ill judged. It was the sort of taunt Eamon de Valera would never have made because he knew at first hand the stature and achievements of Redmond and the respect for Redmond among ordinary nationalist people.
Today at any event most people don't know who John Redmond was and see little reason to castigate a man long dead who did his thing for Ireland and whose emphasis on tolerance and inclusion should make him more rather than less fashionable at this present time. In addition, 25 years of Northern violence have made us all a little less enthusiastic about the efficacy of the "blood sacrifice". What was meant as a taunt may yet backfire.
So why did Bertie bother with this high risk strategy and why did his colleagues indulge in such Britbashing on Wednesday's Dispatches programme on Channel 4?
It was like being stuck in a time warn. Especially since the people likely to be impressed by this approach are never likely to vote Fine Gael, Labour or PD. Fianna Fail has them already and why risk turning off the middle ground which instinctively distrusts this sort of thing? Is it pressure from the grass roots?
CERTAINLY Wednesday's parliamentary party meeting showed no sign of dissent as speaker after speaker applauded Bertie's speech, and from what Drapier hears it went down very well with the grass roots. But then the grass roots (of any party) are not necessarily the best judges of the wider public mood.
Drapier thinks there may be a two pronged agenda in all of this. Every possible doubt must be cast on John Bruton's grasp of Northern Ireland, his "suspect" nationalist credentials and his lack of enthusiasm for pan nationalism. That bit is clear enough, the only difference being that the earlier whispers are now given full voice. So far, at least as far as Drapier can see, it has done little harm to Bruton, but that could change.
The other possible reason for the new greening and hardening of Fianna Fail as Drapier picked it up from one of the wiser heads in here is that it was all a clever preemptive strike.
Does Fianna Fail, he asked, know something the rest of us don't know? If there is a chance of a second ceasefire Fianna Fail's new position would put it in the driving seat to broker such a ceasefire and put itself dramatically back into the action. A bit like Brian Cowen's dash to Tehran, but more so.
One way or another bipartisanship on Northern Ireland is as near dead as makes no difference, and for all of us that's bad news.
The Bord na Mona row which raged in the media all week barely surfaced, but Drapier thinks this may soon change. Eddie O'Connor is genuinely well liked in here and there is widespread agreement that he has done a good job at Bord na Mona.
That said, however, the scale of the expenses and the general picture of high living which emerged shocked most of us, and from what Draper gathered the questions have really only begun to be asked. It is hard to see how Eddie and Pat Dineen can co exist after all this. And given the scale and nature of the row there can really only be one winner, Pat Dineen.
The whole thing highlighted once more the confusion which surrounds pay for senior executives in the state sector. In some ways they have the best and worst of both worlds. The best is that they have Civil Service security but with perks and expenses no civil servant would hope to enjoy. The worst is that they feel hard done by in comparison to their colleagues in the private sector.
ONE way or other Drapier finds something odd in a situation where the take home pay of a state company executive is twice that of the Taoiseach. And as for unvouched expenses, try that one on any of our gimlet eye accounting officers.
The House found time this week for a very unfashionable subject, the travellers. The issue is going to be big later in the year when Mervyn Taylor's equal status legislation appears, especially if as is expected, it outlaws discrimination against travellers in pubs and hotels.
Already the vintners have built up a big head of steam on this issue, arguing that if they have to give a reason for refusing to serve somebody they could find themselves facing defamation proceedings. Every one of us has been lobbied to the extent that Drapier can hardly go for a quiet pint without the subject being raised.
Mervyn Taylor has shown little sign of backing down, and one way or other the issue is going to have to be faced. What struck Drapier was the careful and measured tone with which most people tackled the subject, and he was particularly impressed with the courage shown by Chris Flood.
Drapier was amused at the antics of Micheal Martin on the IMRO row. Listening to Micheal it was all the Government's fault that IMRO was doing what it was doing. Strange, that. Did Micheal not read the Eithne ethics disclosure, which would have told them that three of his own Fianna Fail parliamentary colleagues are retained and paid as consultants by IMRO. Surely the questions could start closer to home.
Drapier noted the Government's defeat in the Seanad on Wednesday night. Joe O'Toole managed to get all his own troops and Fianna Fail behind him. Even Feargal Quinn went soft on fiscal rectitude for once. Still with a working majority of minus three, the surprising thing is that Liam Cosgrave wins as many votes as he does. One consolation is that Wednesday's defeat did not lead to any rush to the Park or calls for an election. You bet.