Maybe not quite a glad confident morning but a wonderful day to wake up in Northern Ireland all the same - or anywhere in these islands. The long, dark night of civil conflict is over. A generation who lived under the cloud of communal strife and violence has been liberated. For successive Irish governments in recent years it is an unparalleled achievement. For individual politicians like John Hume and George Mitchell it is the crowning glory of their careers. But above all, it is a tremendous demonstration of the primacy of politics. It is the resounding reply to those who would dismiss politics as being irrelevant to our lives.
Some of the pictures from Stormont paint a thousand words. The new Minister for Social Development, Nigel Dodds, did not, however, rely on pictures. Speaking of his Cabinet colleague, Martin McGuinness, he bluntly asserted that the future education of the children of Northern Ireland had been handed over to the former chief of staff of the IRA.
Minister Dodds, who has some reason to be bitter, then calmly proceeded to his desk. Meanwhile McGuinness effortlessly fielded questions about his new portfolio. Where did he stand on integrated education? The parents of Northern Ireland were entitled to send their children to the school of their choice. Commentators concerned about McGuinness's lack of formal education or administrative experience are likely to discover that he has acquired skills in the crucible of struggle that cannot be learned at university. Education reform has a contribution to make towards abating sectarian tension and McGuinness will be expected to show himself to be up to the challenge.
McGuinness is not alone in the new devolved government in having responsibility as well as high office reposed in him. Having spent decades engaged in tribal sloganeering, the politicians of Northern Ireland will now have to tussle with the bread-and-butter issues of everyday politics. Hospital closures, agricultural recession, regional imbalance, educational reform and industrial development are only some of the issues that will gradually change the focus of politicians in Northern Ireland.
Increasingly, there will be less public tolerance for resuming the sterile conflict that has for too long afflicted the people of this island. Hope and history may yet rhyme. One of Drapier's spies reports happening on a half-dozen Dail Deputies clustered around a television in a Maynooth Hotel absorbing the latest news from Stormont. It transpired to be none other than Jim Mitchell and his PACMEN holed up in the Kildare hideaway drafting their report on the DIRT Inquiry. The belief in here is that the committee was rash to promise a report before Christmas. Whenever the report comes, if it is consistent with the quality of the public hearings, it too will deliver a resounding rebuttal of the naysayers of politics.
Given the resources at his disposal, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy would also have been expected to deliver a further resounding blow for politics. Instead, he finds himself besieged by Mna na hEireann which makes his encounter with the Credit Union Movement seem mild by comparison. It is a singular achievement to unite Nora Bennis and Ann O'Donnell against what the National Women's Council of Ireland called a "nightmare Budget for women".
Anti-poor, anti-women and anti-family, says Fr Sean Healy of CORI, who is getting better at the soundbites with every passing Budget. How could any Finance Minister with £942 million to give away in income tax reductions have succeeded in bringing this down on his head? The Fine Gael Finance spokesman, Michael Noonan, couldn't believe his luck as he spotted the banana skin and tore into the author of this "socially divisive" Budget. Bertie Ahern, sitting between McCreevy and Mary Harney - or the only Taoiseach to be surrounded by PDs as Brendan Howlin put it - seemed genuinely taken aback.
As a ripple ran though the front benches of the Opposition parties when the Minister reached his "individualisation of tax bands", Brian Cowan growled: "Ye don't even know what he's talking about". Taken together with the Taoiseach's gloomy countenance, this would seem to give credence to the rumour that swept the House that this "detail" hadn't been discussed with Ministers. Of course Drapier is long enough around to know that such a rumour may well be inspired by those who might wish to distance themselves from a Finance Minister now in trouble. The revolt on the back benches had already started on Budget night.
The disaffection rapidly spread to some of the Independents on whom the Government depends. Suddenly, a Minister who should be basking in the reflected glory of the biggest giveaway Budget in the history of the State found himself contending not just with Opposition and media criticism, but with growing disaffection in his own ranks. Government Deputies who had started the week buoyed by media commentary about the unprecedented riches at the disposal of the Minister were now dreading the weekend clinics. Charlie McCreevy and Mary Harney - with the support of the Attorney General - may well be minded to withstand the revolt, but the sight of Noel Ahern and the Archbishop of Dublin making common cause will not be withstood by Bertie.
Earlier in the week the Government heaved a sigh of relief that the Garda had read the tea leaves and detected little public support for their latest summons to the barricades. The public debate was beginning to shift from the implications for public pay to the quality of policing. This is not a debate in which the Garda wants to engage, judging from the near hysterical response by the editor of Garda News in a Sunday Newspaper. Given the week that was in it, Drapier heard a number of comments to the effect that the Patten Report had lessons for policing down here.