Former attorney general Mr John Rogers caused a stir at tonight’s Labour Party selection convention for a general election candidate in Meath by withdrawing his candidacy.
Mr Rogers made his announcement shortly before the convention began in Navan, Co Meath, this evening.
He was pitted against a fellow barrister Mr Peter Ward, who was a leading campaigner in the pro-divorce campaign.
Mr Ward, who is a close friend of Mr Rogers, will now stand as the Labour Party general election candidate for Co Meath.
Chaired by the party’s general secretary, Mr Mike Allen, the selection convention was expected to see a close contest between the two high-profile candidates.
Meanwhile, in his address to the conference, party leader Mr Ruairi Quinn called on the main churches in the North to actively support integrated education.
He said denominational schooling would contribute to breaking down sectarian barriers in the North.
"I am aware that the Church’s resistance to integrated education was made powerfully at the New Ireland Forum, by the current President of all people, but that was then and this is now," he said.
Mr Quinn said he was concerned the "ceasefire generation" may be more sectarian than those who lived through the pre-ceasefire days, criticising Sinn Fein for hailing recent general election success as the "greening of the West".
He also described the Ulster Unionist party’s decision not to nominate to the police boards as "inexplicable".