There is now a distinct possibility that there will be no Connacht chairman elected. The revised deadline of last Friday (12 February) passed with no valid nominee for the position. Instead, all five counties nominated a candidate, leaving no one available to provide any of the five with the necessary second nomination.

Last Wednesday night, Tom Turley, current regional chairman, and John O’Beirne were both nominated in Galway and Roscommon respectively. Turley again faced a challenge within his own county, seeing off Pat Hardiman. O’Beirne, who was denied by the IFA’s full-time farmer rule 10 days earlier, was again unopposed.

The following night, Sligo and Mayo nominated Eddie Davitt and Padraic Joyce respectively. The one change came in Leitrim which, on the same night, nominated Des McHugh, having previously seen chairman James Gallagher support O’Beirne’s candidacy.

This is a genuine deadlock, and will not be easily sorted. The rules and privileges committee have not met since last Friday and currently have no plans to meet.

The word is that at least some of the candidates would like to see all five candidates run.

This would require a rule change, which would require the ratification of the executive council following a 28-day notification period. It would set an unwelcome precedent for IFA elections and would certainly cause the likes of Derek Deane and Tim O’Leary to pause. For all these reasons, it’s unlikely to happen.

The county chairmen have no authority to agree a resolution, as it was the county executives not the chairmen who made the nominations. Only the executives or the candidates themselves can sort this out now.

There does not seem to be an appetite for drawing two names out of a hat and letting those two contest the position. It may be that there will be no Connacht regional chair come April.

Pat O’Toole