THE Louth councillor who swallowed his disappointment and campaigned cheerfully alongside Gerry Adams during the Sinn Féin president's first Dáil election campaign is favourite to succeed him as TD.
Mr Adams announced that he will not contest the next general election.
Tomás Sharkey had been expected to take over from Arthur Morgan when he stepped down in 2010, but instead the then West Belfast MP was `parachuted' in to the constituency. Mr Adams insisted at the time that he had been invited by the local party.
At the time Mr Sharkey toured Dundalk with his party leader insisting: "There's no personal interest in this. This is everything I've ever dreamed of growing up and looking at politics. This is a fantastic move."
Following the recent retirement for personal reasons of a number Sinn Féin's Louth councillors and their replacement with new faces, Mr Sharkey is now the most senior figure in the local party and as such is in pole position to be secure the nomination.
As a councillor for Dundalk South, he is also "from the right part of the constituency" - between the Dundalk and the border - for both name recognition and to help with vote management.
There had been suggestions that former Stormont minister Caitroina Ruane - who lives in the constituency - would contest any vacancy left by Mr Adams's retirement.
According to soundings from within the constituency, her selection would not be the affront that another Belfast-based candidate may represent to local members.
Since deciding, earlier this year, to quit the now suspended Stormont where she held a seat in South Down, a seat in the Dáil would give the high profile party member a democratically-mandated role within Sinn Féin.
However, tensions have arisen between Ms Ruane and party leadership, after emerged she continued to be paid her annual deputy speaker's salary of £55,000 - despite the fact she had not stood for re-election.
Sinn Féin issued a statement distancing the party from Ms Ruane, saying: "Any arrangements she may have come to with the assembly were her own affair".
Even was that situation to resolve itself in coming weeks, the feeling in the constituency is that Mr Sharkey should "get first crack at it".
However, just a year ago, he accepted a job as principal of Inver College in Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan.
"I wanted to be a principal in an Education and Training Board school. I believe passionately in the new Junior Cycle," Mr Sharkey told the Dundalk Democrat when he was appointed.
"I believe the new cycle is primed for a modern economy and will bring the Irish education system into the 21st century."
If he gets the call he will have to chose between his dual careers.
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