Connacht IFA chair Padraic Joyce declared his intention to run for deputy president of the IFA at a Mayo IFA county executive on Wednesday night.

He is one of three candidates in the running, the other two being Kildare’s Brian Rushe and Cavan’s Thomas Cooney.

Candidates need their own county to nominate them, plus five other counties in order to get on the ballot paper.

I’m told there was a lot of schmoozing last week ahead of the December IFA elections, at the annual IFA county chair gathering which took place on the continent.

There are three names in the hat so far for the role of head bottlewasher of the IFA – Tipperary’s Tim Cullinan, the current IFA treasurer, Wicklow’s Angus Woods, the sitting livestock chair, and current Munster regional chair, John Coughlan.

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