The end-of-term feeling this year as the House goes into recess is different in some ways from what is usual. The silly season atmosphere is not there. Too much of importance is happening.
The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have just spent the entire week in Belfast trying to complete the implementation of the Belfast Agreement, delayed for so long by the arms decommissioning problem.
Whatever about Bertie Ahern, who would have to look on the establishment of the executive and the full implementation of the agreement as a vital national interest, it is hugely to Tony Blair's credit that he should devote so much time and energy and risk his own prestige in a matter that is not central to British interests and which, in any event, mystifies quite a proportion of the British population. Ahern is right to put everything into this final push because never again will he or any Taoiseach have a British Prime Minister so well disposed.
Those who remember the early days of the Troubles in the North recall that the attitude of the British government to the Irish was one of frosty indifference. Now both governments are singing from the same hymn sheet and both are exasperated by the deep-seated mutual intolerance and suspicion which is Northern Ireland.
It makes a laugh of Sinn Fein's constant carping that the problem is caused by the British or the British government. It is purely a problem internal to the North.
The sense of urgency is, of course, deepened by the imminence of the nonsense that is Drumcree. It is an unhappy land that has to endure on an annual basis the bigotry and counter-bigotry of Drumcree. Apart from the former Yugoslavia, is there anywhere else in Europe where one group of people of a particular religious persuasion try to assert their superiority and dominance over another group of a different religious persuasion?
Drapier always thought there was a Protestant ethic of respect for civil authority and the law of the land. The decision of the Parades Commission is the law of the land.
These Orangemen show no regard for the law as they seek to taunt the Croppies and remind them of who won the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
The genuine problems which unionists have at the moment in trying to reach a rapprochement with terrorism are not helped by the antics of these Orangemen seeking to provoke confrontation and civil disturbance.
Trimble has huge difficulties in trying to keep his party together, and the whole climate is again conducive to extremists rather than to the middle ground, who almost become irrelevant by their own moderation.
Liam Lawlor's victory in respect of two of his three claims against the Flood tribunal may well pose significant problems for the Government and the Oireachtas. The tribunal will presumably appeal to the Supreme Court, but if it is not successful in overturning the decision, it may find it difficult to pursue its inquiries in respect of people who were not prepared to co-operate with them.
This may encourage others besides Mr Lawlor not to co-operate either. That in itself sends its own message, but Drapier wonders nowadays if non-co-operation with, or even obstruction of, a tribunal really matters as far as the public is concerned.
Certain electoral results suggest that the public scarcely cares.
Michael Lowry in the recent local elections received two quotas, but the evidence to the Moriarty tribunal suggests that he is in danger of receiving something a lot less pleasant in the time to come.
Charles Haughey has been returned for trial on the criminal offence of obstructing the McCracken tribunal, but Drapier is constantly assured by those who have their finger on the pulse that if he were to stand for election in the morning in his old battleground on the north side of Dublin, he would sweep in.
Ray Burke was due to give evidence this week to the tribunal, but in the light of the Lawlor decision will he now avoid being called?
Fianna Fail breathed a sigh of relief when his appearance was put off earlier this week until after the Dail had risen. Burke has the potential to wreak havoc in his evidence if he chooses to do so.
John O'Donoghue's unhappy little Bill on the licensing laws was not one of those rushed through at the last minute. While John was up in Belfast grappling with the intricacies of decommissioning the publicans' lobby was putting the screws on Fianna Fail back-benchers and the Bill was not proceeded with.
Nothing can get in the way of such an important body of men as the Irish publicans. They are not interested in important issues when their own welfare is at stake. It is amazing how ineffective refugees, asylum-seekers and so on are in their lobbying where their very lives may be at stake, compared to the well-heeled Irish publicans who can generate a great head of steam in support of ever-increasing opportunities for profit for themselves.
It was interesting to see the Labour Party introduce a lobbying Bill. Drapier wonders if it will ever become law, but the lobbying "industry" is one that might benefit from a little bit of transparency and public exposure.