We might be forgiven for thinking that we live in the age of inquiry. This week there were several developments in the various investigations.
The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters, under Mr Justice Flood, got under way and there appeared to be a lot of people anxious to be legally represented before it. It is evident it will run for some time and involve several contentious issues.
Now that the rules have been changed regarding the legal costs of people appearing before tribunals, there will be even more apprehension than in the past on the part of the various witnesses who run the risk of adding to their problems by incurring a substantial bill.
The Moriarty tribunal on payments to Mr Charles Haughey and Mr Michael Lowry is well under way, even though it has not held any public sittings.
If we are to go by the record of the McCracken tribunal, Moriarty nonetheless has probably found out a great deal already, even if the public is not yet aware of it.
While all this is going on, and independently of it, Mary Harney is conducting an inquiry, under the Companies Acts, through one of her officials into Celtic Helicopters, in which one of Charlie's sons has a substantial interest.
This inquiry came about as a result of findings by the McCracken tribunal. The investigating official reached a point where he informed the Tanaiste that he needed, for the purposes of his inquiry, to have access to the great untouchable, the Ansbacher accounts.
One of the banks involved with these Ansbacher deposits, Guinness & Mahon, seems to have handed over its documents at Ms Harney's request.
The other bank which held these deposits at one stage seemed uncertain whether she had power to order it to do so and went to the High Court, but now gives the appearance of being likely to comply.
If the records that are handed over are complete, the great national curiosity as to the identity of those who had £38 million in this account will be satisfied. No doubt the Revenue Commissioners will be particularly curious as to their identity and will dispatch a few well-aimed letters if and when they get the names.
There are considerable powers of inquiry under the Companies Acts, and Ms Harney seems anxious to avail of them whenever she thinks it necessary.
Also this week, Mr Haughey applied to the High Court, seeking an order to stop the Moriarty tribunal inquiring into his affairs. His application has been adjourned until next week, but none of Drapier's legal contacts thought he had any great prospects of success.
Those prospects were probably not improved by Dermot Desmond taking the unusual step recently of issuing two separate statements about his financial support for Mr Haughey and various members of his family who benefited under different guises from Desmond's largesse. Will Dermot Desmond prove to have been as generous as Ben Dunne?
The Desmond statements reminded people of the two Glackin reports of 1992 and 1993 where Mr Glackin had carried out an inquiry, with some success, into who the beneficiaries were in the sale of the Johnston Mooney & O'Brien site to Telecom Eireann.
Dermot Desmond was found to have played a leading role in that complicated series of transactions, and his evidence at the time did not impress the inspector.
An unresolved matter then was the ultimate destination of £500,000 in cash that was collected from a Dublin bank and brought to Mr Desmond's office. Perhaps Mr Justice Moriarty may be able to follow the matter a little further and discover where that cash ended up.
There is a palpable sense of relief around Leinster House at the developments in Northern Ireland this week.
Things had been getting very messy since the extraordinary murder before Christmas of one of the leading loyalist terrorists, Billy Wright, in the Maze Prison and the subsequent retaliatory murders of several Catholics throughout the North.
The ease with which Wright could be shot by another inmate who was segregated from him suggests that things are indeed free and easy in the Maze. At least one weapon and ammunition could be imported into the prison for the purpose of this murder.
It is supposed to be a high-security prison as it contains some of the most violent convicted people in these islands. But internally, at least, it seems to be run by the prisoners themselves. The cells are never locked and the officers have to get permission from the paramilitary commanders even to carry out a head count. Drapier wonders if Portlaoise is run the same way.
This week's relief arises from the publication by the two governments on Monday of their proposed Heads of Agreement for a settlement. Happily, the reaction was almost universally favourable, even though Sinn Fein seemed to be backsliding a bit as the week progressed.
The document is fairly minimalist and is little more than a list of headings, but it did seem to do the trick, at least in the short term. Credit is being freely given to Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, who devoted a lot of their Christmas holidays to trying to develop this paper and to amend it into a form that increased its chances of acceptance as a starting point for the discussions at least.
One of the sobering things about the North is the genuine lack of interest in it down here. Drapier moved around during the week and never heard the latest developments discussed anywhere except in strictly political circles. The atrocities are scarcely discussed either. There is simply a general switch-off, and the farther south you go in the Republic, the more total is that switch-off.
Furthermore, the general public, in so far as they have any interest, are probably less optimistic than politicians as they look at the constant splintering and fragmenting of what are already splinter groups among the men of violence on both sides.
The media can scarcely be blamed for the public lethargy and lack of interest about Northern Ireland. It is probably deep in human nature that the long succession of murders and horrendous acts of violence over nearly three decades causes people to switch off from what they find continuously painful and unpleasant. It is an instinctive reaction to shy away from prolonged horror. It is the human mind's way of protecting itself from acute depression.
And still, so much of our future in every part of this island is bound up with what happens or does not happen over the next few weeks and months.
It is far more important than the transient little events that erupt from time to time to excite our political instincts.