Two county councillors have been chosen to run for Fine Gael in Kerry South in the next general election, ending speculation that the party will seek to persuade high-profile candidates to run for the party.
Tom Sheahan from the Killarney electoral area, and Séamus Cosaí Fitzgerald from the Dingle electoral area are based at the extreme edges of the three-seat constituency.
They defeated Johnny "Porridge" O'Connor from the Killorglin electoral area and Brendan Griffin, parliamentary assistant to Kerry North TD Jimmy Deenihan, who is from the mid-Kerry area.
It was not clear until the convention which was held late on Friday night how many candidates were to be selected. However, the directive from party headquarters to the more than 800 delegates who turned up at the Killarney Heights Hotel was for two candidates, one of whom had to be from the Dingle electoral area. This was to ensure a good spread of candidates.
While no figures were released, Mr Sheahan, a shopkeeper based in Rathmore and first elected in 2004 to the county council, polled 446 first preferences, or more than half the 813 votes.
He was followed by Mr Fitzgerald, who at 156 votes was just ahead of Mr O'Connor at 155. Mr Griffin polled 56 first preferences, according to party sources.
A number of polls conducted by Fine Gael and leaked before convention showed Mr Fitzgerald, who is also a member of Udarás na Gaeltachta, as having the best chance of gaining a Dáil seat for the party.
He was a candidate at the 2002 general election and he polled 4,539 first preference votes, just less than half the quota.
There had been speculation that party headquarters would add a high profile candidate, notably former GAA president Seán Kelly.
Fine Gael expects to win back the seat lost to Labour in 1989 in the three-seater. The current Labour TD, Breeda Moynihan is not contesting the next election. The other TDs are Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue (Fianna Fáil), and Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae.
Chairman of the convention, Tom Hayes TD said the convention was one of the most important for Fine Gael nationally as the party had no seat there since 1989.