IT IS to be all or nothing for the Labour Party. A return of the Fine Gael/Labour Party/Democratic Left Government in the coming general election or a spell on the opposition benches.
There will be no deal involving Fianna Fail or the Progressive Democrats under the leadership of Dick Spring.
The delegates were fired up. They had supported two successful governments since the last general election, four years ago, and they were looking for direction.
The old, opposition style Labour Party had given way to one almost complacent of government and nobody was thinking of turning the clock back.
But they had a problem: one that Dick Spring categorised as "an each way bet for Fianna Fail" (if we can't have the PDs, sure Labour will be there to make up the numbers) and one he was determined to eliminate.
It was a delicate balance. On the one hand, Mr Spring could be accused of anti democratic arrogance by rejecting, in advance, a possible choice by the electorate on the other, he was putting his own political career and the prospects of his party at risk.
It was about confidence. The party's decision to enter government with Fianna Fail in 1992 may have been forgiven by Fine Gael supporters, but has not been forgotten. So, to ensure the tightest possible voting transfer arrangement between the Government parties, with minimum "leakage" to Fianna Fail and the PDs, it was necessary to create a seamless pre electoral skin.
The move was also designed to generate confidence and cohesion between the Government parties and to offer some certainty to a dithering floating vote.
Given the low esteem in which politicians are held by the public, Mr Spring went a step further. After the election, he said, if the present Government was not returned, he would urge a special Labour Party delegate conference with all the conviction at his command, to rule out a Fianna Fail/Labour Party government and to go into opposition.
He did not spell out the implications of that position, but they are important. Should the delegates reject his advice and opt for a new government involving Fianna Fail (as some of his Ministers might wish), Mr Spring would be forced to resign as party leader.
And, if Fianna Fail failed to form a government with the assistance of other Dail parties, the Labour Party would be blamed for precipitating a second general election.
Just how Mr Spring and his party would fare in those circumstances was not something delegates, or TDs, were anxious to contemplate.
Mr Spring made two commitments at the weekend: he promised not to lead Labour into government with Fianna Fail after the election and he promised there would be an election to fill Mary Robinson's place in the Park.
It was a clever move. Labour, it suggested, had been on a roll for seven years, ever since it had nominated Mrs Robinson to be President. That was the beginning of the modernisation of Irish life and Labour had played its part.
He would not politicise the Presidency, perish the thought, but they and Mrs Robinson happened to share the same vision of female equality and social inclusiveness and they advocated the need to help those on the margins.
From there, it was only a short breath to the start of a comprehensive attack on the PDs. The headline might read "Labour rules out coalition with Fianna Fail" but the sub text was devoted exclusively to a demolition job on the philosophy and economic record of PDs.
This was the party which, along with Fianna Fail, had given the country a "misery index" of job losses, high interest and inflation rates and social cutbacks from 1987 to 1992.
Having unveiled the party's "vision thing" for the general election, a new "social guarantee" that would spread the benefits of an "abundant economy" to the most marginal and the deprived, he insisted that only a "centre left" government could deliver.
Linking Mary Harney with Maggie Thatcher and her view that "there is no such thing as society", he declared: "These are not concepts that a PD style government would understand. How can you accept the notion of a social guarantee when you have as much difficulty as they have with the concept of society itself?"
For the other two days, the sun beat down from a near cloudless sky and Ministers lined up to quote their achievements and to promise a glut of legislation.
Ruairi Quinn talked of record employment, a booming economy and £245 million being spent on social solidarity. He seemed to enjoy his role of "getting up the noses of right wing commentators who believed my economically illiterate party could not be trusted in the Department of Finance". They choked, he said, on the figures.
Mervyn Taylor took a bow for his reforms of family law and the right to remarry. Legal aid services had been expanded and the problems of people with disabilities had been addressed.
Niamh Bhreathnach spoke of record spending on education, the abolition of university fees and the special efforts made to address the causes of crime through new educational programmes.
Michael D. Higgins basked in the reflected glory of a creative - artistic community. Brendan Howlin promised a new national programme on sustainable development. And Eithne Fitzgerald had her Freedom of Information Bill.
It was "all change" at Limerick as the Labour Party prepared for the coming general election.