As Ruairi Quinn presides over a two-day think-in on the shores of Lough Derg on the Shannon, he faces one of the first real tests of his leadership. And he has to make a decision quickly. Will he allow a relatively small, if influential, minority in his parliamentary Labour Party to block his ambition to forge a merger with Democratic Left?
Those most reluctant are sitting Labour TDs in constituencies with a strong Democratic Left representative who might unseat them in the next election.
It is indeed ironic that those who most wholeheartedly propelled him to succeed Dick Spring as leader of Labour last year are now laying siege to his attempt to coalesce with Proinsias De Rossa et al.
And ironic, too, that Labour's deputy leader, Brendan Howlin, is leading the negotiating team in talks that will in all likelihood lead to a merger decision and cause most discomfort to those who opposed his own bid for the leadership?
Though both Labour and Democratic left are loath to use the term "merger", senior sources say the process has now gained an almost unstoppable momentum. A union in some form will occur with Democratic Left, in spite of misgivings on both sides. Otherwise, it would appear that Mr Quinn was in thrall to a cluster.
The looming local government and European Parliament elections have set a kind of deadline on negotiations between the two parties and a final decision is expected by the end of the year.
A closer alliance between the two parties had been considered by former leader, Dick Spring, and in his departure speech to the Parliamentary Labour Party he urged his colleagues to pursue a closer association.
It was after the 1992 election, when Labour swept into Leinster House with 33 seats, that Mr Spring made overtures to Democratic Left with a view to burying the hatchet and exploring the possibility of forming a government.
They even produced an agreed policy document. However, Fine Gael was having nothing to do with Democratic Left and Labour rode into the sunset - temporarily - with Fianna Fail.
Relations between Labour and Democratic Left were not happy while one party enjoyed Government and the other endured Opposition. Two years later, that would change and a warm stint together in the Rainbow coalition led to the ending of one of the bitterest rivalries in Irish politics.
Earlier this year, Democratic Left conducted a review of its own predicament. Now down to four Dail seats with about 2 per cent of the vote, the party's future looked distressingly forlorn.
On May 23rd the party's executive passed a resolution to seek a new political formation which could lead to the establishment of a left-led government.
Though no one really screamed "foul" at the time, there is "a significant minority" in Democratic Left, too, that does not wish the marriage to go ahead, sources in the party say.
However, as in the case of Labour, it is anticipated that a special delegate conference will sanction a merger early next year.
In spite of stark warnings from within Labour that a merger will split the party and must be stopped, the process gallops on. Labour's General Council will meet on Thursday to renew the mandate of the negotiating team and it will take about two more months before concrete proposals emerge.
In spite of assertions by senior Labour sources that opposition to the plan is confined to those TDs who will directly be affected by the presence of a Democratic Left TD, serious problems do arise for the party.
How, for example, does the leadership hope to get round the problem of Roisin Shortall, its Dublin North-West TD who made a Dail seat from nothing? She shares a constituency with the Democratic Left leader and their constituency has been cut by the review commission to three seats. Labour cannot run two candidates there in the next election.
"Ruairi just can't sell that one to the party. It would go down very badly, very badly indeed, with the troops. And, if De Rossa says he is going to run for Europe, Bernie Malone (Labour MEP) will be up in arms," one source said.
Senior Labour figures like Pat Upton, Niamh Bhreathnach and Liam Kavanagh realise their political futures are at risk if a merger proceeds.
On the upside, a union of the two would mean a strengthening in parliamentary muscle and a formidable front bench with the presence of top Dail performers like Pat Rabbitte, Eamon Gilmore and Liz McManus.
Those in favour of merger argue that following their successful period in Government together and their convergence on policy issues, it is logical that they should unite. Splinter groups only dissipate the strength of the left.
Post-merger, the greater question is this. Why is the traditional constituency of the left in Ireland - the marginalised and disadvantaged - not attracted to left-wing political parties in more significant numbers? How can Labour and Democratic Left address this paradox in their new left movement?
"There is no evidence that seeking this vote is one of the motivating forces behind Labour's move to join up with Democratic Left," says one source. "If the philosophy is to forge a social democratic, middle-of-the-road operation, they are not likely to introduce the measures on social inequality to persuade the marginalised they are on their side."