DRAPIER saw him coming, but it was too late to take avoiding action. It would be half an hour at least before Drapier would get away and he knew from past experience that all he could do was grin and pretend to listen.
Drapier's acquaintance has opinions on everything - strong opinions at that - and always a great welcome for himself and the expectation that he will be listened to. The same fellow can clear a pub in 10 minutes flat, causing strong men to mumble their excuses and leave.
But Drapier, being a public representative, has to listen, especially since our friend, who never canvassed a day in his life and probably gave Drapier no more than a grudging third preference, feels he has ownership rights on all politicians, and that his is the true voice of the "grassroots".
"A touch of the Skibbereen Eagles about your crowd this week" was his opening salvo.
Drapier professed not to understand.
"Your pal, Bertie Ahern - telling the Russians we would help them with their anti-terrorist campaign; our great depth of experience and all that sort of guff. Surely you heard him spouting all that stuff to their prime minister last Wednesday."
Drapier had not but he assured his friend that all great leaders make these polite noises to each other when they get together, but he needn't worry about his son in the Guards being sent out to Moscow just yet.
The friend was not mollified.
"This Celtic Tiger yoke has us losing the run of ourselves entirely. Has anyone been got yet for the Omagh murders? No, and here we are offering our `expertise' to help sort out the Mafia, the Chechens, the Kurds and god knows who else. We should cop ourselves on, remember we are still only a baby power and stop throwing shapes internationally - especially when we can't even make up our minds about this Partnership for Peace thing. The way things are it is more likely that we will be exporting some of our released terrorists. Plenty of scope for them out there, that is if they don't get stuck in here first."
There was more in similar vein, and Drapier had no option but to listen. The next target was Eircom or, as he persisted in calling it, Telecom. Our friend was less than gruntled. Drapier recalled that the same man had borrowed over the odds and assured all and sundry at the time that telecommunications was a surefire bet, the coming thing, and all that stuff. But it is not in our friend's nature to admit that he was ever wrong about anything, so it was Mary O'Rourke and Charlie McCreevy who got both barrels on this one.
Drapier listened. Nothing very coherent emerged, but there was a genuine undertone of concern, if not worry. This was not how things were meant to be, and talk of digging in for the long haul, of thinking long-term, sounds increasingly hollow, especially when some external experts are beginning to doubt the sustainability of the Celtic Tiger.
"I'm not sure all this rush to privatisation is a great idea," said the friend who, incidentally, was saying exactly the opposite a year ago. "Take Coillte, for example. Would any other country sell off 5 per cent of the entire land mass of the country to private interests? Answer me that."
Before Drapier could attempt to answer he had moved on. "This privatisation thing is grand if it spreads genuine profit, but the way things are going the only ones to benefit are the top management and directors. It's the rest of us, the taxpayers, who have built up these companies and yet it's this crowd, chancers in the right place at the right time, who come in and whip off the cream. It's all a bit of a scam if you ask me."
Drapier's friend is a card-carrying begrudger and for the next 10 minutes Drapier got a full blast of who would make what out of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta - everybody it seems except the poor taxpayer.
By this stage Drapier was edging towards the exit. "And as for this abortion thing, this White Paper . . ."
Drapier saw no point in arguing about the colour of the paper. There was enough to argue about already.
"You're all bloody mad to be getting into this thing again," he said.
Drapier braced himself for a burst of fundamentalism. And for once he was surprised.
"I used to be black and white on this one. But to tell the truth I can't stomach another bout of that crowd, those young thugs and some of the screaming women. I know your pal Dessie Hanafin is talking about a reasoned debate but that crowd won't let anyone get a word in edgeways. Anyway, I'm not sure there is any clear-cut solution."
"But surely the present situation is riddled with hypocrisy," said Drapier. "Aren't we saying one thing and doing another?"
"Sometimes hypocrisy is the only workable answer," said the friend, and before Drapier could press him further, he was off.
That said, Drapier agrees the issue will not go away and the people in the firing line on this one are our friends the Independents. All have given their hostages to fortune and all are going to come under enormous pressure, sustained, emotional and threatening. And one thing the Independents have shown in the past is that they are not great under pressure.
That's easy said. The rest of us have the protection of our parties and we can shelter behind a collective decision. Not so the Independents. They have put themselves in the front line with no hiding place and little protection. And don't the pressure groups know it.
To a certain extent the ball has been kicked to touch, into Brian Lenihan's committee. But it still remains the one issue which could threaten the stability of the Government. Fianna Fail in particular has its pressure points on this one, and the PDs will not be able to go along with any move to fundamentalism. But for the moment there are no visible strains showing and in fact may not ever show.
Next week it's back to what we call normal. The tribunals will recommence their leisurely trawl and maybe take a leaf from Jim Mitchell's committee which has been doing its work with admirable dispatch. They might even sit the same hours Jim's people do. Why they have to follow Law Library hours is a mystery. And whether the star witnesses make us any the wiser remains to be seen. Drapier for one thinks we have become shock-proof and immune to outrage.
Finally this week Labour has got its act together in Dublin South Central. In Mary Upton, Ruairi Quinn has a good candidate and don't let's forget Ruairi has already won two of the three by-elections of this Dail. Ruairi needs a boost but Drapier will have more to say on that later.