Mood of delegates: Fianna Fáil delegates gathered in the meandering complex that is the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney at the weekend after a year of attacks upon them.
Facing questioning from journalists, many delegates were unusually silent, ever so politely refusing requests to give their thoughts on the state of the Soldiers of Destiny.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, though, can leave Killarney with his back stiffened, if he needed such lumbar support. "He's getting an incredible reaction," said one of his staff, with a note of surprise in her voice.
And he did. Everywhere he went, Mr Martin was congratulated. "Fair dues to you, Micheál," the cry arose as delegates stretched to shake the hand of the man from Cork.
For years, the Minister for Health has impressed FF's grassroots as they watched him rise from the ranks of Ógra to the Cabinet, though a niggling suspicion that he lacked backbone has never quite gone away.
His current position deals with that issue. Even those who believe the smoking ban is off-the-wall have been impressed. "He is standing for something. You've got to admire that," said one.
Away from the clapping and cheers, however, there are doubts. "The organisation doesn't know whether it will work, or not," Mr Michael Herlihy, from Inchigeela, said.
Others are more confident, believing that the controversy is a puff of smoke. "People will see in time that it would be impractical to have smoking and non-smoking areas in pubs," said Mr Tim Lavery, Castlemaine, Co Kerry.
The furore would die down once the legislation came into force. "The publicans are painting the worst possible scenario. Pub-going may actually increase, not fall, because of this," he said.
Indeed, delegates appeared to be taking the Minister's calls to quit the evil weed to heart; there was never so little smoke seen at an ardfheis as delegates shared pints in the bars.
Conscious that Fianna Fáil has taken a battering in the opinion polls since the general election, delegates, most of them veterans in years as well as experience, are only too aware that politics ebbs and flows.
"Fortunately, we had the Celtic Tiger. We were on the crest of a wave. The time had to come when there would be a backlash," said Mr Jim Kelly, Ballycumber, Co Offaly. "It had to happen. Inevitably, the economy had to take a downturn. And anyone who was in power at the time it did was going to take the brunt of it.
"Having said that, I don't think the Government has handled it well. It could have managed it better. There were some cautious soundings in the election, but the message was restrained.
"The Government was quite happy that the whole nation was in a buoyant mood and it didn't want to spoil the party. It probably went with the popular line," said Mr Kelly.
For now, delegates are prepared to accept the leadership's promise that all will come right in the end - though the months of campaigning ahead for the local elections could sour the mood.
"We heard that the economy is not in a bad state. We heard about the projects that the Government is undertaking," said Mr Kieran O'Dowd, Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, who will be a candidate in the local elections. "I am quite surprised by the mood of the ardfheis. People have taken the time to come a long way. They are quite happy. I don't think disillusionment has set in it just yet," he told The Irish Times.
Nearby, the Minister for Health continued to receive handshakes by the score, though one of his Cabinet colleagues, used to the twists and turns of political fortunes, offered a note of caution.
"It's an ardfheis instinct. They see one of the lads in trouble and they rally around. It doesn't mean that they all agree with him. It just means that they won't be the ones to cause him trouble."
