I broke one of the professional rules of a lifetime over Christmas and wrote to a politician expressing sympathy for his misfortune. I wanted to thank Peter Mandelson for the work he had done for the British Labour Party and to say that I believed that the scale of Tony Blair's election victory in l997 was a crucial factor in bringing peace to this island.
Like many Irish people reared in England and a supporter of the old Labour Party, I have been deeply suspicious of the whole New Labour project. The emphasis on style rather than substance, the jettisoning of so many of Labour's traditional values, the cosying up to big business and free market values have often been hard to stomach.
But compared with what went before - the Thatcher years of greed and indifference to poverty followed by the cynicism and incompetence of John Major's period in Downing Street - New Labour has been a liberation. There is the aspiration to build a kinder and more inclusive society. Anyone who doubts the scale of Peter Mandelson's part in achieving this need only remember the bliss of watching the election results on TV, the euphoric moments when Michael Portillo and so many standard-bearers of the Tory right fell before the New Labour tide.
I have, as the saying goes, an interest to declare in writing now about Peter Mandelson. In the early 1980s when he worked first as a researcher, then as a producer for the ITV current affairs show, Weekend World, we made a number of programmes together about Northern Ireland. As a colleague he brightened the Belfast sky, being gossipy, resourceful and endlessly considerate about any problems one might have about child care and so on.
Even then, when it was obvious that the glittering prizes of media stardom and money were available, his heart was with the hopelessly divided Labour Party. He talked endlessly about making it "electable". He had a family link to it through his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, and when Neil Kinnock offered him a job in 1985 he took a hefty cut in salary and departed for Labour Party HQ.
He had very little time for traditional ideology and either failed - or refused to take seriously - how precious the values of old-fashioned socialism were to many party members who had struggled through the long years in the wilderness.
He was obsessed with making Labour into a party of government and was quite prepared to deflect much of the flak when Tony Blair was accused of "selling out" to the modernisers. His critics say that he never understood the real heart of the party and made no effort to win its trust, and that is why there are few tears being shed over his departure.
But looking at his disgrace over the £375,000 loan, it seems much more likely that he was greedy, a bit of a snob and genuinely believed that there was nothing wrong in a Labour MP having a smart house in Notting Hill Gate. Now Mandelson has gone, and the whole New Labour project in Britain is greatly weakened as a result. Tony Blair has lost one of his closest allies, a man with a brilliant political brain and great skills in convincing the British public that it could feel safe with Labour in power. More than anyone else in the cabinet it seemed that Mandelson would shoulder the task of bringing Britain far more firmly into Europe, thus avoiding the splits which have so riven the Tories.
Suddenly, after a year which has brought a series of resignations and political reverses, Tony Blair looks uncertain and vulnerable. That must have serious implications for this island and for the still fragile political progress in the North.
As 1998 ends, we are being forced to take stock of how very much the peace process has depended on the energy and commitment of two politicians from outside Ireland. Both have been damaged by the events of the past year, deservedly perhaps, in ways which must be a cause for concern. The first, more serious, casualty is Bill Clinton.
The US President's willingness to take risks, to stick with the search for peace even when the going was very rough indeed, has made our present relatively optimistic situation possible. On many occasions, not least with the lavish expenditure of time and hospitality, Clinton has been able to inject new momentum into the process when it was seriously flagging. The fact that he personally persuaded George Mitchell to chair the talks that led to the Belfast Agreement is just one example of how indispensable his involvement became.
But in the hard politics of the Anglo-Irish relationship, it was Tony Blair's arrival in Downing Street with a whopping majority which transformed the situation. It's hard to remember now, but many of us who had watched New Labour's performance in opposition were frankly pessimistic about the new Prime Minister's interest in Northern Ireland. There seemed little reason to hope for radical change in this one area of policy, given the enormous general task which faced a party that had been out of power for l8 years. We were confounded. From his first visit to Belfast, Tony Blair made it clear that he did indeed feel the hand of history on his shoulder and was determined to help Northern Ireland to escape from its terrible, tragic past. The new Prime Minister gave unstintingly of his time and energy.
He showed courage in drawing the republican movement back into the process. As important, he demonstrated great sensitivity in winning the confidence of many in the unionist community who yearned for peace, and in persuading David Trimble that the time had come when he could lead his people into a historic accommodation with nationalism.
It is difficult to imagine that any other British leader since the start of the present Troubles could have managed it. Blair had the parliamentary majority, the authority in his own party and the confidence of the British people as a whole which made it possible.
It may seem a long way from Peter Mandelson's problems with his house in Notting Hill Gate to the peace process. But it was Mandelson's formidable political skills that helped to put Tony Blair and New Labour in power. Of course, the British Prime Minister will remain committed to the pursuit of a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. But, like Bill Clinton, he has been weakened by the events of the past year. We are going to have to learn to rely a great deal more on our own political resources to push the peace process forward in the year that lies ahead.