AND so it has come to pass. After all the hype and expectancy we have the Presidency of Europe and will continue to have it for the next six months.
The earth did not exactly tremble for Drapier as the handover took place last weekend, nor is he too sure how much notice the punters will take of the whole thing apart from the inconvenience, the pomposity and, for Dubliners, the ear piercing motorcades.
In fact, the whole process has more potential to turn people off than to enthuse them. We are that sort of people, and Drapier's first advice to those of his colleagues entrusted with the leadership of Europe for the next six months is to take it easy.
One Padraig Flynn is enough at any given time.
Drapier doesn't underestimate the importance of the presidency: it is crucial that it should go right and Drapier knows it will go right. We are lucky to have in John Bruton and Dick Spring politicians who know and understand Europe and have the capacity to make a success of the presidency just as Garret FitzGerald and Charlie Haughey did before them.
However, Drapier takes a somewhat lower view of politics and he sees in the presidency, especially a successful presidency, one of the biggest threats to the survival of the Government. The reason is simple: the more Bruton and Spring are absorbed in the bigger, global issues, then the more the eye will be off the local ball and, as the late Tip O'Neill used to say, All politics are local".
Having their eyes riveted on the high Euro balls leaves the field open to the opposition parties to do what they do best, concentrate on the ground hurling. It might not be pretty but it sure can be effective. It has started to happen already.
DRAPIER knows John Bruton and Dick Spring get impatient with this sort of talk. They would be wise not to. All the Euro success in the world could quickly turn to domestic ashes if the home front is not also adequately secured. That's Drapier's view and he knows he is right.
The atmosphere in the Dail at present is jittery. It all brings home to Drapier the extent to which politics these days is one crisis after another: the pace does wear people down. The recess was never more eagerly awaited, with the usual end of session tiredness overlaid with the continuing row over security measures and the adequacy of the response.
In one sense, there is an unreality about much of the public debate. Security is one of those areas where everyone has a very definite view and some of the media reactions in particular have been totally self contradictory.
We are told, sometimes in the same editorial, that there must be immediate and effective action, but on the other hand the response must not be over hasty, it should be measured and reflective.
Then we are told we need draconian powers, that these people must be taken out, and yet a few pages or a few sentences later we are warned of the Heavy Gang" and the danger to civil liberties.
Drapier's own view is that the less hype and the more specifics the better. Leadership is about curbing fears, not about exacerbating them.
Bertie Ahern showed that a calmer approach pays dividends, certainly more than the strident "scorch and kill" policy that has characterised so much of the debate. Indeed, Bertie has done well on the whole issue, and Drapier was surprised John Bruton took so long to get so fully involved.
Once in, he did steady things, and his Thursday performance went some way, but only some, towards restoring confidence in the Government's handling of the issue. It's not going to be easy.
Drapier fears Ruairi Quinn has gone native in Finance. He was right when he said that if we as a society want security to be our first priority that is fine by him but other areas must necessarily suffer.
On balance, Ruairi was right to spell out this message in cool terms, and Drapier has no doubt that some of those shouting loudest now would be the first to scream if their own pet project was deferred or stood ...
But there was something about Ruairi's timing and a sourness about his way of saying it that would have done credit to the crustiest of his predecessors, not excluding Sean MacEntee.
And what about Nora Owens Politics is a rough business and no Minister for Justice in recent times has had a rougher ride than Nora. In Drapier's view some of the stick she has taken was undeserved; some was due to bad luck; and some was of her own making.
But in spite of appearances to the contrary there is a sense of fair play in here, and Nora is less isolated now than she was at the beginning.
Drapier's spies tell him that Wednesday's Fine Gael parliamentary meeting underlined this point and turned the spotlight on those of her critics who thwarted her on Castlerea and on bail.
As Drapier said before, Nora is tough, and if she keeps her nerve and sticks to her priorities she can reassert her undoubtedly damaged authority. In some ways, the most important happening this week was the publication of Ken Whitaker's report on the Constitution. Drapier has dipped into it and is impressed. It is very different from the 1966 report. That bone managed to do its business in just over 100 pages. The new report goes well over 700.
It carries far more academic and at times ideological baggage than its predecessor, but that reflects the make up of the committee and the times we live in.
Will this report make any difference? Drapier thinks it will. For a start, it will focus political attention on major aspects of our political and constitutional system and will initiate debate leading to real changes, not all of them necessarily constitutional.
HE Seanad is a good example. Drapier believes the present Seanad is one of the best of recent times, its relevance greatly sharpened by the absence of a Government majority, even if Liam Cosgrave did do the impossible again this week and rescue the Government from the jaws of certain defeat, admittedly with a little help from the John F. Kennedy.
Drapier, however, would argue that the Seanad needs radical change in a number of key areas, and the Whitaker report will force it to face up to these issues.
Drapier believes it will be the same on many other issues. The report cannot be ignored and it is Jim O'Keeffe's job to see it is not. There need be no unseemly haste. Slow and painstaking change in matters constitutional is essential. It is the only way to treat what started as Dev's Constitution but ended as ours.