One thing you can try is pass in --g-fatal-warnings to Gtk::Main, this will cause warnings to assert. You can attach with gdb and maybe figure out some more detail about where this is failing.
I found the problem.
This code was ported from an original implementation in C, and I had a requirement before to use an array of function pointers to call the functions inside of a shared library. Although this [seemed] to work at the time once I actually started using them it was not the case. I am a little stumped on why its not working, but I was able to centralized the problem to the following piece of code.
gtk_signal_connect (GTK_OBJECT (plugin()->workbook()->gtk_workbook), "switch-page",
(GtkSignalFunc)this->signals[NOTEBOOK_SWITCHPAGE], plugin->workbook());
Was changed to the following:
gtk_signal_connect (GTK_OBJECT (plugin()->workbook()->gtk_workbook), "switch-page",
(GtkSignalFunc)signal_gtknotebook_switchpage, plugin->workbook());
Now, the code compiles and I am not getting any nasty errors. I think this is the answer!