The mood of the SDLP is becoming more confident, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Mark Durkan MP appears to be a bigger man now than the one who addressed the last conference and called for his party to fight for its life at the polls in May. "He's a different guy now since winning that seat," was the observation of an established reporter at the press desk who witnessed a more strident Durkan speech to the party conference this year.
The observation was endorsed by a member of the party's depleted Assembly group who said that the letters "MP" attract considerably more gravitas than the title "MLA".
The SDLP had been written off for a very long time, as speaker after speaker reminded reporters at the weekend. Almost as long, in fact as Durkan's political apprenticeship under John Hume.
Now there are definite green shoots in the midst of the bare patches of the party grass roots.
This conference was less silver-haired than previous meetings. There were more unfamiliar names of people whose dates of birth coincided with the hunger strikes and the arrival of an electorally efficient Sinn Féin.
To some in the hall, the simple tribute to the late Gerry Fitt, the SDLP's first leader, must have seemed like a page from pre-history rather than the recent past.
But while the average age of delegates may have lowered somewhat, there was a mood about this conference which suggests that if this party is to regain lost ground it has one chance and the time has come.
Delegates flooding from the conference hall after Durkan's speech had not missed their party leader's pointed remarks amidst the self-congratulation.
"Get organised," he ordered them.
This meant constitutional reform, early selection of a European Parliament candidate, organisational overhaul and a commitment to getting the party's act together from branch level upwards - and not just at election time.
Such demands point up traditional and enduring SDLP weaknesses - and indeed the comparative strength of Sinn Féin.
Vibrant branches in every corner of the North remain a dream and not a reality.
Floods of young, motivated election workers in all constituencies remain an aspiration.
But this conference believes there is a new impatience "out there" with Sinn Féin, just as there is rising frustration with seven years of political stalemate and stagnation.
Many are convinced that the whole peace process saga with its seemingly unending process has cheapened both politics and politicians.
Back amid the euphoria of 1998 there was an acceptance that "things needed to be done" to end the conflict.
Now, there is outright cynicism about just what the two governments would be prepared to do to get Sinn Féin and the DUP into a devolved executive at Stormont.
It is this which helps explain the party's hostility to last December's failed "Comprehensive Agreement" and to the published legislation to facilitate the return of the "On The Runs".
If they are right about the mood within the nationalist-republican electorate and if Durkan can motivate his party to capitalise on last May's successes, then the SDLP can truly look to some prosperity under its second generation confident that that generation will not be the last.