Spring, Summer and Fall - The Rise and Fall of the Labour Party, the memoirs of Ray Kavanagh from his time as general secretary of the party between 1986 and 1999, is causing more than a little anger in the ranks.
Frequently, Mr Kavanagh puts himself at the centre of the action, the source of wise counsel and strategies, the soul of the party wrestling with the kitchen cabinet surrounding Dick Spring.
Published by Blackwater Press, the book is short of startling revelations, even if it offers insights into the ground-level operations of a major political party, often bereft of money and, sometimes, of hope.
The allegation that has attracted the most attention is that Fergus Finlay and Labour's national organiser, Mr Pat Magner, urged Dick Spring to get Emmet Stagg to quit as Minister of State in 1994.
Mr Stagg had been questioned in the Phoenix Park in late 1993 by garda∅ in an area frequented by gay men. No crime was committed, and no charges were ever brought about the incident.
The Kavanagh version does not square with the memories of all inside Labour. If anything, Labour was saved from having to make a decision by Fianna Fβil's lack of interest in forcing out the Kildare TD.
Still irked by being on the fringes of power within the party, Kavanagh frequently complains about the circle around Spring - including Finlay, Greg Sparks, Willie Scally and Spring's redoubtable secretary, Sally Clarke.
He is not alone in feeling left out. Amongst the most talented group ever to feature in Irish politics, the Spring cabal did become remote from the Labour parliamentary party - even if they themselves refuse to accept that now.
The tone is often carping about the Labour leader. Few, though, will disagree with the general picture that Kavanagh portrays of a highly talented, driven, but curmudgeonly politician.
The former general secretary says he laid down three ambitions in 1987 -- to establish party discipline, expel the Militant Tendency, recruit Jim Kemmy and Declan Bree and end the perpetual rows about coalition.
Clearly, Kavanagh is irritated by the belief that Spring was solely responsible for the tidal wave of support that delivered 33 seats to Labour in 1992. Many of the candidates, he says, had slaved for a decade to win.
And the slight suffered when Spring decided to disburse £240,000 worth of donations, including £50,000 from Michael Smurfit, from his own office, and not through Kavanagh's, still rankles.
Relations between Quinn and the Spring, claims Kavanagh, broke down in late 1996, provoked by policy differences, but also by Quinn's unhappiness at not still being in coalition with Fianna Fail.
Ruair∅ Quinn, then deputy leader, secured £40,000 from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which largely funded Labour's failed attempt to get the 1986 divorce referendum passed.
Given the murky and often confused nature of politics, it is probably inevitable that there are a few errors. Dick Spring did hit John Cooney outside the Dβil bar - but not because of a question from the journalist about Emmet Stagg.
Spring's father, Dan, was a member of the famous Rock Street branch in Tralee, but he did not live on the street. Instead, he lived in Strand Street. Such details matter for political 'anoraks'.
Kavanagh, who is a primary teacher in Dublin, is today in Cork City Hall for the party's annual conference.
He should not, perhaps, be looking for bouquets.
