Pat Rabbitte's speech in Killarney did much of what he does best: expressing anger at broken promises and cuts in services and delivering contemptuous one-liners deriding the Government with perfect comic timing.
But he also spelled out a serious political analysis of what the Labour Party must stand for and the policies it must modernise if it is to offer voters an alternative vision of society at the next election.
Mr Rabbitte has said his party must renew both its policy stance and its organisation during what may be a four-year period before the next general election. His speech was designed to begin work on the former, but as he delivered it and looked out at the crowded hall on Saturday night, he will have seen the scale of the task in relation to the latter.
He will have seen some of the thousand new members Labour has attracted since his election as leader last autumn. Many of these are completely new recruits. Others are party supporters and activists who formally joined after the party's first one-member, one-vote election highlighted the power membership gave them.
However, the middle-aged profile of the delegates at Killarney was striking, and was more pronounced than at Labour conferences of recent years. In interviews at the weekend, Mr Rabbitte acknowledged this problem, but said it was due to the disengagement of young people from politics in general, and was not solely a Labour problem.
But the conference was lively and well attended. Mr Rabbitte took the clear right-of-centre positioning of the Government as an opportunity to help define where he wanted his party to stand. His Fair Society vision is to be defined as a project based on values opposed to those of the current Coalition.
"Labour values reject the sort of society reflected in the selfish prism of this PD-Fianna Fáil Government." Labour's project is less one of socialist transformation than market economics coupled with social goals. Efficiency, enterprise, entrepreneurship and innovation must be nurtured, he said. But these must be accompanied by "social justice, sustainable development and personal freedom". There would be open and honest government, an end to poverty and racial intolerance, the reversal of the restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act, pride in politics, safe streets and a new Garda Authority. If this Government reintroduced third-level fees, Labour would abolish them again.
Taxation was the vehicle for building the world-class health care, housing, transport and public services Labour wanted, he said. He and his finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, emphasised tax equity and fairness rather than raising taxes. They both spoke of the need to close tax loopholes, limit tax breaks and, of course, tax stallion stud fees. Mr Rabbitte said investors should pay tax at the same rate as those who work - a suggestion which may mean that capital gains, now taxed at 20 per cent, should be taxed at 42 per cent.
He restated the party's commitment to borrowing for capital spending ("prudent and careful borrowing"), something the Government now seems determined to do itself.
He signalled the party would be pitching for the middle class and for disillusioned Fianna Fáil supporters as it seeks to expand its support and maximise its influence in any future Government. His pledge to re-abolish third-level fees, if necessary, will play well in this new or aspirant middle-class constituency.
And while the conference passed motions denouncing the Government for plans - real and imaginary - to privatise State companies, Mr Rabbitte suggested flexibility on what has been a traditional touchstone issue for the party. "We have to adapt to the new Ireland that we ourselves helped to create." People now were often more conscious of themselves as consumers and customers, and were not preoccupied with the ownership structures of particular enterprises.
And while expressing support for trade union campaigns on health and safety, redundancy payments and working conditions, he said: "The Labour Party cannot make transport policy only for transport workers, although their input is vital. We cannot make education policy only for teachers, though their input is essential. We can't make health policy for doctors, although to exclude their contribution would be unthinkable."
So he has indicated a willingness to remain independent of vested interests normally associated with the Labour Party, to be less hung-up on traditional Labour opposition to privatisation, to go after those who "think Labour but don't vote Labour" and to expand the party organisation to take on the threat from Sinn Féin and others.
It was a modernising message at the start of a long and difficult period in opposition. "We are in a marathon, not a 100-metre sprint," said Mr Rabbitte, acknowledging he has four years to go before any revitalisation of his organisation will pay dividends by returning Labour to power after what will be a decade in opposition.