Noel Walsh, a 59-year old retired army colonel, completes the line-up. He is the outsider and has had to labour under the burden of knowing that no Munster candidate has won this election in nearly a quarter of a century.

He is a well-known administrator at county, provincial and national level and is a fervent advocate of the Railway Cup. Currently he chairs the important football development committee and last year completed his term of office as chairman of the Munster Council.

One of the causes he has espoused for a while is that of providing a floodlit venue in each province to stage evening League matches during the winter.

In Clare, he has been a constant champion of football and was instrumental in introducing the open draw to the Munster football championship, a move he saw as vital to giving other counties a chance of confronting the Cork-Kerry domination of the province.

Within a year of its introduction, he was a selector on the team which won Clare's first Munster title in 75 years. At the last election congress in London, he was a declared candidate but withdrew on the weekend of the vote.

This time around, his candidacy has been well flagged in advance and he was nominated by the Munster Council over a year ago. His candidacy was complicated by the nomination of his Munster successor, Kerry's Sean Kelly who insisted that he wouldn't contest an election against Walsh but who still waited a couple of weeks before withdrawing - much to Walsh's irritation.

Like his rivals, he believes that urban alienation is the most pressing problem facing the GAA. "The main challenge is to address the problems of inner cities and urban areas where the situation has deteriorated over the last 20 years. In rural areas there's not the same problem. In my county you can have a club like Doonbeg with a population of about 500 and they go to win a Munster title."