Mark Durkan's right hand trembled as he made his first address as party leader yesterday. The same hand was thrust confidently into the air when he came to end of his speech declaring loudly: "SDLP, lead on!". This was the cue for one final standing ovation in a weekend when delegates seemed to spend more time up out of their chairs, applauding, cheering or singing, than they did sitting down.
It was also the cue for several women in the audience to walk up to where the new leader sat and plant congratulatory kisses on his cheeks. His young wife and SDLP employee, Jackie, wiping a proud tear from her eye, gave her husband first a handshake, then a hug.
The newly elected deputy leader, Br∅d Rodgers, had already confided during her acceptance speech that when she first met Durkan he was a bit scruffy and wearing a duffle coat. "Doesn't he scrub up well?" she said of the sharp-suited politician.
All around, the SDLP faithful exchanged satisfied looks as the old guard was exchanged for the new.
"The media keep saying we are in demise," said one excited woman to Fianna Fβil's Mary O'Rourke, who was waiting to congratulate the new leadership team, "but look at the energy here, look at the confidence in this room".
The hall was buzzing as a tired-looking Seamus Mallon slipped quietly into the foyer of the hotel. "I am sad," he said. "It has all been very emotional". He and John Hume had been the focus of the crowd the day before when the event at the plush hotel had been more farewell party than party conference.
After well-received speeches from Hume and Mallon ("I am so glad I was there, it was historic," said one delegate), there was a 20-minute video tribute, where everyone from Clinton to Blair, Ahern to Mowlam, paid homage to their political achievements.
The U2 song Walk On was the theme tune for the conference and the video featured Bono opining that Hume was a great guy "with the chicks". A man interviewed on the street remembered hearing Hume singing in a bar. "You have great vision," he said. "But a terrible voice". The tributes were interwoven with moving pictorial memories of the civil rights movement and the Troubles.
The Secretary of State, John Reid, gave the proceedings a lift when the relentless canonising of Hume and Mallon threatened to bore even their biggest fans.
He called the delegates comrades but hoped that such language wouldn't get him into trouble with a man he referred to as Tory Blair, a crowd- pleasing Freudian slip.
In a perfectly pitched contribution, he said Seamus Mallon was the only man he knew who could make "Good morning" sound like a threat.
The contest for deputy leader also gave the conference a boost, with five candidates competing in what Durkan quipped was one election the SDLP simply couldn't lose.
Alban Maginness came second but got top marks for effort.
His campaign team had produced beer mats featuring Alban and his favourite pop star Britney Spears, hoping that delegates would vote for him, baby, one more time.
There was lots of talk at the conference about making the most of the youth of the party, but one female delegate wasn't sure.
"If Br∅d Rodgers is voted as deputy, it doesn't do much to convince me that the party wants to look to a new generation," she said.
As the drink flowed, the farewell party conference descended into cabaret, a mischievous Mallon persuading a willing Hume to sing from the stage. So the crowd were on their feet again joining in The Town I Loved So Well, Danny Boy, the Bard of Armagh and We Shall Overcome .