Michael Noonan's call on people from all walks of life to become involved in politics was a reminder that Saturday night's celebration of the party's past was also about its future.
At £50 a head, Saturday night's dinner to mark Dr Garret FitzGerald's 75th birthday was a civilised and sociable affair rather than a rabble-rousing occasion. However, the new leader used the occasion to graft his political agenda onto the FitzGerald legacy. If Dr FitzGerald's time as leader represented the party's glory days, he was there to carry the flame forward to more such days.
Calling for the support of "people who up to now have steered clear of politics", he said they must "follow the example of Garret FitzGerald, who has dedicated his life to the betterment of the people of Ireland".
Some 1,200 people showed up. There was a large Labour Party presence, and a substantial representation from the legal profession. The Green Party was represented by Mr John Gormley but former PD leader Mr Des O'Malley was the closest they got to an old Fianna Fail adversary.
Most striking was the array of figures who had served with and under Dr FitzGerald. Former Fine Gael ministers who worked with him included Mr Peter Barry, Mr Jim Dooge, Mr Patrick Cooney, Mr Jim Mitchell, Mr Alan Dukes, Ms Gemma Hussey and Mr Paddy O'Toole. Former Labour Ministers included Mr Dick Spring, Ms Eileen Desmond and Mr Liam Kavanagh.
Other Fine Gael veterans present included the former Chief Justice, Mr Tom O'Higgins; the former Attorney General under Dr FitzGerald, Mr Peter Sutherland. Dozens of current Oireachtas members were present.
At the end of the function a woman was looking for the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Peter Barry. She remarked that she had thought for a moment that his hair colour would make it easy to spot him in the crowd - his distinctive silvery-grey hair marked him out during his term in office.
But the difficulty was that the group of a couple of hundred people standing around what had been the top tables was almost a sea of grey hair now. That the party needs new blood was acknowledged by Michael Noonan in his plea to the uninvolved to participate in politics.
The speakers placed Dr FitzGerald at the epicentre of the high points of Fine Gael, the glory days when they believe the party set an agenda that has been pursued by each successive government to this day.
In 1977, said Mr Noonan, Garret FitzGerald had "set about turning the party into a professional organisation . . . in 1982 he achieved the best-ever party result." Then came the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement - "Garret's crowning political achievement" which had led, said Mr Noonan, to the Good Friday agreement.
"The true patriotism that has been the hallmark of the FitzGerald family for three generations has to be rekindled today," he said. "Many of the most talented don't get involved in politics now: the revelations at the tribunals keep them out."
Turning the celebration of the past into a rallying cry for the future, he said he detected "a yearning among the people for a real alternative in politics".
He had already instructed the party to accept no more corporate donations and was now "calling on people in the universities, the media, the professions, business, farming, voluntary organisations and sporting bodies. I am calling on young people and people of experience to participate in politics . . .
"I am appealing to people who contribute so much to their own workplace and professions to look beyond their own specialities and offer their talents to the country so that together we can work to build an equitable, just and civilised society. I am calling on people to follow the example of Garret FitzGerald, who has dedicated his life to the betterment of the people of Ireland."
Geoffrey Howe - now Lord Howe - spoke of how Dr FitzGerald had changed the way Irish and British governments dealt with each other. Dr FitzGerald's measured reaction to Mrs Thatcher's "Out, Out, Out" response to the New Ireland Forum report had led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. "From that moment on, the two governments stopped shouting at each other."
It was after midnight before John Hume spoke, detailing the creation of the Anglo-Irish approach to Northern Ireland and Dr FitzGerald's role in it. Ruairi Quinn spoke last.
Dr FitzGerald defended the profession of politics and said he felt that through the tribunals some "wrongs are being put right". He claimed credit on behalf of politicians for the economic growth that has been taking place.
"Politics is not just some business, it's not just an entertainment . . . There is a sense of public service that is worth celebrating and that's what I was happy to celebrate here tonight."