The formal merger of Blaney's Independent Fianna Fail with the official party organisation will be completed tomorrow evening after party headquarters last week bowed to local demands for a three-candidate strategy in the constituency.

However, last night McDaid said he still believed it was "a mistake" to end the 35-year split with the Blaney organisation. "The time to do it was after the general election. The move was motivated by symbolism at the expense of a very good local organisation."

McDaid, who has reversed his retirement decision, will now run with Cecilia Keaveney and Blaney. Privately, senior Fianna Fail sources concede that one of these three sitting TDs will lose out, most likely to Sinn Fein's Padraig Mac Lochlainn.

McDaid supports this analysis. "The tactics here between Blaney and Fianna Fail have kept Sinn Fein down for over 20 years. But if you take Blaney out of the equation [as an independent group] then you're handing the seat to Sinn Fein. A certain number of Blaney's voters will never move to Fianna Fail. That rump in Independent Fianna Fail could be between 2,000 and 2,500 votes."

Blaney, however, dismissed the suggestion that his vote will leak to Sinn Fein. "That's a myth. My republican stance and ideals are today as they always were." He said he was confident of holding his seat.

"There's a good possibility of three seats. Nothing's impossible, " he added.

For several decades, the three-seat constituency had been a straightforward contest, with the seats shared by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and a Blaney candidate. However, Fine Gael were unsuccessful at the last two elections, with Fianna Fail taking two seats . . . McDaid and Keaveney . . .

and the other going to the Blaney organisation.

Reliable Fianna Fail sources claim that recent private opinion polls in Donegal North East and Donegal South West show the six seats on offer returning four Fianna Fail TDs and two new Sinn Fein TDs. Such an outcome would be a huge blow to Fine Gael. The party is targeting Donegal North East for a gain at the next election, although its new candidate, Senator Jim McHugh, faces his own internal party difficulties, with former party councillor Jimmy Harte running as an independent.

The formal amalgamation of the Blaney and Fianna Fail organisation ends a rift which was formalised on 26 June 1972 when the late Neil Blaney was expelled from the party for "conduct unbecoming."

The split had its roots in the 1966 leadership contest to succeed Sean Lemass which was contested by Neil Blaney, a formidable political operator, cabinet minister and grand-uncle of current TD Niall Blaney.

With the emergence of Jack Lynch as leader, and subsequent developments in Northern Ireland, the internal divisions in Fianna Fail broke out into the open.

Blaney . . . along with Charles Haughey . . . was centrally involved in the 1970 Arms Crisis. Outside the party fold, Blaney maintained a strong local organisation but his dismissal from Fianna Fail was an open sore. In one interview in the early 1990s, he said: "I am still very angry because the question can still be asked . . . 'Why was I dismissed?' and there is no answer to that, apart from the fact that I did not see eye to eye, then or since, with the Fianna Fail establishment on the Six Counties."

The chant "We want Blaney" was a regular refrain at Fianna Fail ardfheiseanna. There were several attempts at a reconciliation, including a formal request in late 1985 from Blaney that "our two parties reconcile their differences in the interests of our country". But the return never happened. Neil Blaney later admitted of his longtime friend, "Haughey was the person who didn't want me back."

Ironically, Cecilia Keaveney's father Paddy won a famous by-election victory as an Independent Fianna Fail candidate in Donegal in June 1976. When the returning officer announced the result there was near pandemonium in the count centre as Keaveney and Blaney were carried shoulder-high around the hall amid chants of "Blaney for Taoiseach."

What remains uncertain now is whether similar scenes will be repeated next year. If not then McDaid, the poll topper in 2002, will either have ended the career of Keaveney or finished off the Blaney political dynasty.

2002 general election result

J McDaid (Fianna Fail) 9,614
C Keaveney (Fianna Fail) 8,340
Niall Blaney (Independent FF) 6,124
B McGuinness (Fine Gael) 3,914
S Maloney (Fine Gael) 3,723
P MacLochlainn (Sinn Fein) 3,611
J McNair (Labour) 1,021