We all knew Jim Kemmy was seriously ill, and knew that we were unlikely to see him back in Leinster House, but the end came with a suddenness that took all of us by surprise. Colleagues had been visiting Jim on a regular basis in hospital, and the word was that Jim's spirit was as indomitable as ever and his interest in politics and literature as lively as ever.
The death of a colleague often evokes cliched responses. Not so with Jim Kemmy. There was nothing of the cliche about him. Everything was authentic. What you saw was what you got. He was a genuine once-off who enriched all of our lives. He was a socialist of conviction but without the narrowness and dogmatism that is so often a characteristic of that breed.
There was no self-righteousness but a genuine humility - or more accurately a tolerance for other points of view. He had a rare capacity to argue his point of view without being personal and the bigness of mind and spirit to separate the essential from the passing fad. His historian's detachment enabled him to see things in perspective - no easy thing in the rough and tumble of politics.
But it is as a man we will remember Jim Kemmy. To know him was to be the better for it. He was quite simply a lovely man, a good man, an honourable man. Drapier feels sorry this weekend for Jim's great friend, John Mulvihill, the former Labour TD for Cork East. It has been a hard year for John - losing his Dail seat and now the loss of his great friend.
Leinster House and Irish life will be the poorer for the passing of Jim Kemmy. But it was a great privilege to have known him.
It was an ominous week for Ray Burke. Drapier is not talking about the contents of the Magill letter which, from Drapier's reading of it, is entirely circumstantial and does nothing to implicate Ray Burke. As far as Drapier can see, it is Mr Michael Bailey who has questions to answer on this matter and in any event Drapier would like to see the whole letter rather than have it fed to him in selected extracts.
So why then does Drapier say it is an ominous week for Ray Burke?
The first reason is that this controversy will just not go away. The central fact of a £30,000 donation is too big for that and it doesn't take opinion polls to know the public are sceptical if not hostile on the issue. What this means is that we will have a drip by drip series of revelations for as long as Ray Burke remains a Minister and it will be this rather than some shattering "revelation" which will finally bring matters to a head.
Already this week the latest Burke story totally overshadowed the launch of Prof Mary McAleese's presidential campaign, and Drapier can see nerves becoming increasingly frayed. Ray Burke is respected in Fianna Fail but not greatly loved.
In fairness, he never set out to be a popular figure and he has made some significant enemies over the years, not least in the still sore Reynolds camp. In short, he is an expendable target for those with their own agendas and an unnecessary distraction for some of the younger people in a hurry.
Most ominous, however, was the reaction of the PDs. The PDs have never been known for their robustness under media or public pressure and Drapier knows that the pressure has been growing in recent days. Mary Harney is under pressure, especially from those who see the PDs becoming less and less a distinctive party and want to arrest what they see as a process leading to assimilation into Fianna Fail.
In a sense the issue for the PDs is becoming a kind of litmus test of their separate identity. And that, if past experience means anything, is not good news for Ray Burke.
Finally this weekend, to the Presidency.
A week, as they say, is a long time in politics and we are in for five long weeks before we make up our collective minds. In one sense the past week has seen much of the heat go out of the internal Fianna Fail row.
The majority view within the party, as Drapier picked it up, was that Albert Reynolds could not be a candidate under any circumstances but that there was no point in talking to him or trying to persuade him of this. So a job had to be done and it was done. There was no easy way or nice way to do it and whatever happened it was going to be messy.
Drapier said here in early August, if anybody had been listening, that Albert would not make it as a Fianna Fail candidate - the payroll vote and the promise of jobs would see to that. No more than anyone else, Drapier did not see the emergence of Mary McAleese, and Drapier has still no real read as to how she will do. It is clear from the press launch that she is being launched as some form of Robinson Mark 2 - certainly that was the impression generated on Thursday. The trouble is that Mary McAleese is not a Mary Robinson - nor are any of the other candidates for that matter - and she will need to offer more than the custard and sweetness of Thursday's launch if she is to make a real impact. The truth is that Mary McAleese is a lady of strong views vigorously expressed over many years, views far removed from the blandness of this week. Some of them may come back to enhance her, others to haunt her, but they are her views and are part of her record. There is no way they will go away.
As for Adi Roche, Drapier found himself swamped in words and allegations all week. What to Drapier was really a Cork row erupted on a national scale and left none of us the wiser as to what the reality was. It was all very unseemly, but Adi Roche, no more than the other candidates, will now know that a campaign at this level will involve a high level of scrutiny.
Mary Banotti got off to a good start with her no-posters campaign and the Terryglass setting looked good. The word Drapier hears on all sides this week was that she could be the slow burner.
We will see.