The Seanad election was the only show in here this week, and for those involved it was a nerve-wracking and at times quite a dramatic affair.
Drapier knows, however, that for the general public - and this point was made by the journalists reporting on the count - the whole thing is something of an arcane mystery, an "insiders only" event whose procedures are as tortuous as they are unintelligible. As one of Drapier's colleagues put it, "Only de Valera could have devised such a complicated and obtuse system."
Be that as it may, the election campaign has been in full swing for the past eight weeks, although in the case of some candidates the campaign has been in progress for the past five years. Drapier is talking now about the campaign for the 43 panel seats and this is hardly a campaign that would or could be called open, transparent or accountable.
It is to a great extent a subterranean campaign. The candidates criss-cross the county seeking votes from the 900 or so county councillors, as cold-eyed and professional a college of cardinals as will be found in any part of the world.
Truth is not the strongest currency, as many bruised candidates know to their cost this week. It is, too, a campaign of great intensity, mainly because the competition is largely within, rather than between, parties.
The public is generally unaware of the deals, the machinations, the enormous efforts put into all of this campaigning, and even if, in the unlikely event of it wanting to know, would have no way of finding out as the campaign is strictly off limits to journalists.
Candidates do not issue statements, do not invite journalists to come doorstepping with them. There are no opinion polls, no exit polls and no political analysis of an evolving campaign. In addition, few of the names evince instant recognition and provide little newsworthy comment.
It all stands in stark contrast to the general election which preceded it, when every facial tic, every small paragraph, every emerging rumour was parsed and analysed as the media sought to make sense of what was happening.
But before coming back to the Seanad itself let Drapier look at some of the results. The universities maintained the status quo, which does not surprise Drapier. He has said more than once that there is no democratic justification for graduates to have a vote for a house of parliament denied to non-graduates, and no logic to a system that denies a vote to graduates of the non-traditional colleges.
But, that said, Drapier has always seen the university senators as an example of something which cannot be justified in theory but works very well in practice.
The simple fact is that the university senators add enormous value to the work of the Seanad, and have been doing so from the foundation of the State.
The present group are among the best ever, and the respective electorates seem to have recognised this fact. Ivana Bacik and Valerie Bresnihan impressed Drapier as good new candidates, but ultimately the work of the outgoing six did speak for itself as far as the electorate was concerned.
So well done to Shane Ross, David Norris, Mary Henry, Joe O'Toole, Feargal Quinn and Brendan Ryan.
As far as the 43 panel seats are concerned - and not all are yet filled as Drapier is writing - all parties can take reasonable satisfaction.
For Fine Gael in its present depleted state the main reaction has to be one of relief. Brian Hayes and Jim Higgins were two of the most impressive members of the last ill-fated front bench and have significant roles to play in Enda Kenny's rebuilding plans. Fergal Browne and John Paul Phelan will give Fine Gael the youngest average age of any of the major parties, and each is a good electoral prospect. Noel Coonan will be odds-on to take a seat in Tipp North, and Sheila Terry is an impressive newcomer in Dublin West.
All in all then Fine Gael can feel happy with the results, even if some of the more impressive performers in the last Seanad, John Connor, Helen Keogh and Madeleine Taylor Quinn, bit the electoral dust, victims to an extent of the new scorched-earth policy. Drapier was sorry, too, that Deirdre Clune, Frances Fitzgerald and Mary Jackman failed, but these are ruthless times in Fine Gael, and some of the scars of this campaign will not easily heal.
Fianna Fáil had no such pressures, and virtually all of the professional senators were returned - and not all to the pleasure of headquarters which had sought to carry out its own cull. But what headquarters wants and what headquarters gets are often very different things, though in between the surviving professionals some new talent managed to emerge, and most attention will focus on Mark MacSharry, whose father, Ray, pulled out all the stops on his behalf.
There was one Fianna Fáil senator who did not deserve to lose, but did: Pat Moylan, in Drapier's view one of the very best members of the last Seanad, decent, thoughtful, utterly committed. Bertie Ahern should think hard about including him in his eleven. Drapier has sympathy, too, for Michael Kitt - as decent a TD as ever sat in Dáil Eireann.
For Labour a satisfactory result. Derek McDowell has his political lifeline while Joanna Tuffy is an interesting new talent. Drapier regrets, however, that neither Kathy Sinnott nor Des Geraghty made it.
One of the values of the Seanad should be that it provides a platform for a wide diversity of views, and each of these was in a position to bring a wealth of experience to their work. The fact that no place could be found for either stands as its own indictment of the present system.
Which brings Drapier back to his original point: what now for the Seanad? Drapier suspects that for the first time real reform may be in the air. The chamber itself has debated the matter ad nauseam, and there is no shortage of ideas. Both Jim O'Keeffe and Brian Lenihan, during their stints chairing the Constitutional Review Committee, produced blueprints for change and argued for radical change. Learned academics such as John Coakley and Michael Laver have even told us how to do it. All that is needed is the political will - and some leadership.
And surely, too, the conscience of the Progressive Democrats must be disturbed by the situation they found themselves in; not standing for election to a House they wish to abolish, but obliged, in the national interest, of course, to accept four seats in that self-same House.
Garret FitzGerald is on leave