Labour Party and former Democratic Left activists began the slow process of building internal bridges and creating a winning public image when they met for a three-day biennial conference in Tralee.
The trauma suffered by Labour in 1997, when it lost 13 Dail seats and subsequently witnessed the political collapse of Adi Roche, has only gradually faded.
The hurt and shock over the reverses, following the great Dail breakthrough of 1992, was reflected in Dick Spring's resignation as party leader. But the weekend saw him hailed repeatedly on his home, Kerry turf, as "the greatest leader the Labour Party ever had".
At the same time, his unity-of-the-left initiative, brought to fruition last Christmas by Ruairi Quinn and Proinsias De Rossa, was the most engrossing show in town as the media monitored body language and possible verbal slights between new party colleagues.
Apart from some frisson between Dublin MEP Bernie Malone and party president Mr De Rossa, however, delegates from the newly-merged entities appeared to have "jaw, jaw" rather than "war, war" on their minds. Former Democratic Left members coursed the conference centre with all the enthusiasm of religious converts as they networked within the new party. And the platform politicians smiled and smiled.
There were some worrying indications, however. Delegate numbers had fallen by a quarter from the pre-election level achieved at Limerick in 1997. And that was before the addition of Democratic Left.
The loss of Dail seats may have accounted for the drop but it seemed clear that party organisation needs serious attention. There was no shortage of political buzz, however, as the largest-ever contingent of Labour Party candidates geared up for the local elections.
The political weapons had already been chosen and, from the opening of the conference, Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats were subjected to a barrage of abuse over their failures in the areas of healthcare, education, public transport, housing and infrastructure.
European election issues were a little trickier, what with differences in emphasis on security and foreign policy between the party leader and president. But a formula that blamed Fianna Fail for breaking a pre-election promise to hold a referendum on Partnership for Peace allowed Labour to avoid looking too deeply into its own heart.
Passions were short-circuited in advance of a public debate on security policy, when the party leader undertook not to join NATO and to favour a referendum on Partnership for Peace. After that it was all sweetness and light as delegates took traditional positions and ignored a Government White Paper - produced in 1995 by Mr Spring - which held that a referendum was not necessary.
As the PfP side-show ranged along anti-NATO lines and embraced the bombing of Kosovo, a real debate about European security and foreign policy never got off the ground. Both Mr Quinn and Mr De Rossa were agreed that change was coming, and quickly. Both spoke of the complexity of the issue within the context of an evolving EU security arrangement. But they differed over what role, if any, NATO or the US should have in the new architecture.
There was overwhelming support for the Belfast Agreement. But, even as John Hume basked in praise as the guest of honour, there was a palpable reluctance to go along with the SDLP leader's suggestion that arms decommissioning could be replaced by a Sinn Fein commitment to totally democratic means and the automatic expulsion from the executive of an offending party.
MR Quinn and his performance was the most important show in town. His first, full-length televised address as party leader provided "the vision thing" as the party prepared for the local and European elections and positioned itself for the coming Dail contest.
Labour as a caring, compassionate, progressive and campaigning party was the underlying theme, as he sought to knit together the disparate elements within the organisation and give it focus for the new millennium.
Top of his agenda was the need to build a more equal and inclusive society on the back of a booming economy. And, in that context, he committed the party to campaign for a new deal for refugees. Our own history made it incumbent on us to change the laws which prevented such people from working here and to tackle the conditions that gave rise to racism in our cities. The policies being pursued by the Government, he told applauding delegates, were a disgrace.
To emphasise his point - and the contribution refugees could make to the country's economic and social wellbeing - he brought Ms Farduz Sultan Prnjavorac on stage to speak of her positive experiences here. As political theatre, it was most effective.
From there Mr Quinn engaged in some vigorous Fianna Fail-bashing. Mindful of the perception that he tended to be "soft on Fianna Fail", the party leader put the boot in and demanded that Bertie Ahern should publicly condemn the activities of Charlie Haughey, Ray Burke and Padraig Flynn. And he raised the spectre of that party reversing engines on Labour's Electoral Act, by abolishing spending limits for all elections and reimporting business interests into politics.
In order to stymie this move, Labour would outlaw all corporate donations to political parties when it next entered government.
And it would also propose a register of all lobbyists working the political system.
Traffic, infrastructure, health care and housing were other policy buttons to be pushed. And Mr Quinn did so with vigour before considering the prospect of a mini-constitutional crusade.
He stressed that to build the kind of society he wanted, the Constitution would have to be reformulated to promote basic economic and social rights.