FORMER GAA President Peter Quinn has rejected suggestions that he has been approached to stand in the snap general election in June as an anti-Brexit candidate for Fermanagh-south Tyrone. 
Speculation this week put the brother of former businessman Sean Quinn in the frame as the potential independent, unaligned candidate to have a go at securing a place at Westminster.
Multiple sources told this newspaper that Mr. Quinn, a respected financial adviser and accountant, had been approached following Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call an election.
“If people are talking, they are not talking to me,” Mr. Quinn told The Impartial Reporter yesterday (Wednesday) adding that he had “absolutely no interest” in the general election.
The election, the second to take place this year, comes against the backdrop of mounting questions over the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union.
Mr. Quinn has repeatedly spoken out against Brexit since the referendum last year expressing concerns about its potential impact on the local economy, business and agriculture, one of the reasons why his name was mooted, according to a source.
This week SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he would support an anti-Brexit candidate for this constituency despite the Green Party rejecting such an alliance. 
Richie McPhillips, who narrowly missed out on a place at the Assembly for the SDLP last month, said discussions are ongoing but would not indicate if he would stand again or not.
He reiterated that this election would be about opposing Brexit. 
As for Sinn Fein, it appears there will be no such pact between it and those parties that share the anti-Brexit sentiment in Fermanagh-south Tyrone. 
It is believed, and was reported this week, that Michelle Gildernew will throw her hat in the ring in a bid to secure the seat she lost in May 2015 to the Ulster Unionist’s Tom Elliott who was selected by his party’s ruling executive to contest the election at the weekend.
Ms. Gildernew could not comment when contacted yesterday but it’s understood her party’s selection convention will take place in the coming days and a decision will then be made.
As speculation about unionist pacts gathered pace following Mr. Elliott’s selection, Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster said her party will not run a candidate here.
Green Party’s Tanya Jones also said that discussions are ongoing but it would be her intention to stand again as did the Alliance Party’s Noreen Campbell who said it would be subject to being selected by her party.
Both Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Campbell stood unsuccessfully in last month’s Assembly election. 
Elsewhere, it is not yet known if Labour Alternative candidate Donal O’Cofaigh or the Traditional Unionist Voice’s Alex Elliott will also contest the Westminster election as the countdown to the second election this year gets underway in earnest.