Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Timing is pivotal in politics. Peak too soon and the party loses the attention of the public; peak too late, and years of hard work are squandered. Since becoming leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore has concentrated on modernising and reforming the organisation and broadening its appeal to the public. He has done a good job, judging by a doubling in Labour’s support and his own clear lead as the most popular party leader. Now he is attempting to build on those strengths and getting the election timing right.

With polling day a distant prospect, the party’s national conference in Galway was expected to amount to a water-treading exercise. But it became more than that when Mr Gilmore challenged Fine Gael for the leadership of the next government. It wasn’t just – as in the case of Dick Spring – a demand to become a rotating taoiseach in alliance with Fine Gael. This was a rallying cry to voters to make Labour the largest party in the State.