Book launch is no excuse for party

The launch of a book of political memoirs usually attracts a bevy of politicians - even if their prime interest is to see how often their name appears.

The unveiling last night, however, of The Rise and Fall of the Labour Party - 1986-1999 by the former Labour General Secretary, Mr Ray Kavanagh, was literally boycotted by the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Only two turned up - the Dublin TD Ms Rois∅ Shortall and Dublin Central's Senator, Mr Joe Costello - and the latter was speaking at the launch.

Mr Kavanagh's book makes a number of claims that have been contested by former senior Labour figures since its contents began to emerge over the past week. In particular dispute is his charge that the former Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring, and others sought the resignation in 1994 of minister of state Mr Emmet Stagg after he was questioned in the Phoenix Park late one night by the garda∅.

Mr Stagg "just refused to resign and called their bluff", he claims. Mr Kavanagh, a schoolteacher once more, also complains that a £50,000 donation by Mr Michael Smurfit in late 1995 was never forwarded to the party's headquarters.

Describing Mr Spring as "powerful, sharp and irritable", Senator Costelloe said the memoirs were a lesson that politicians should not "get carried away by their success and forget the lessons of history and experience".