It was in 1943, while on holidays in Glengariff, County Cork, that Lynch met his future wife, Máirín O'Connor, the daughter of a naval doctor killed in World War I.

On that September day in 1946, Lynch made Irish sporting history by becoming the first player to win six consecutive senior All-Ireland medals (five in hurling and one in football).

A general election was eventually called for February 1948, Lynch topped the poll for the Cork Borough constituency and became a Fianna Fáil TD in the 13th Dáil.

[5] Although Fianna Fáil lost the election and were out of power for the first time in sixteen years, Lynch became speechwriter and research assistant for the party leader, Éamon de Valera.

In 1951, Fianna Fáil were back in power and Lynch was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Government, with special responsibility for Gaeltacht areas.

In 1959, Éamon de Valera was elected President of Ireland and Seán Lemass succeeded him as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader.

The big change was the retirement of such political heavyweights as James Ryan and Seán MacEntee, with Lynch taking over from the former as Minister for Finance.

With Fianna Fáil having been in power for eleven years by 1968, Lynch was persuaded once again to make an attempt to abolish the proportional representation method of voting in general elections in favour of a first-past-the-post system that was used in the United Kingdom.

Much like in 1959, when the party tried to make the same referendum, the electorate believed this to be an attempt to institutionalise Fianna Fáil in power, and thus they rejected the motion put to them.

Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta was a pressure group campaigning for social, economic and cultural rights for native-speakers of Irish living in Gaeltacht areas.

As the violence continued, the Minister for External Affairs, Patrick Hillery, met the British Foreign Secretary and also went to the United Nations in a plea to send a peacekeeping force to the North and to highlight the Irish government's case.

Despite the strains in relations between the United Kingdom and Ireland in the wake of those events, the then British Ambassador, Sir John Peck, praised Lynch, of whom he said "all those concerned with, and committed to, peace with justice in the North owe a very great deal to his courage and tenacity", adding that "I do not think that I ever succeeded in convincing British politicians of how much we owed him at that stage, or what the consequences would have been if he had lost his head".

[11] Lynch's attitude towards the Northern Ireland question and the application of Fianna Fáil party policy to it would eventually come to define his first period as Taoiseach, and would once again show his critics that far from being "reluctant" he was in fact a strong and decisive leader.

The whole affair, which became known as the Arms Crisis, allowed Lynch to stamp his control on his government, but would eventually lead to deep division in Fianna Fáil for many decades to come.

It is now believed by some that Lynch was aware of these activities and acted only when his hand was forced when the Garda Special Branch informed the leader of the opposition and threatened to go to the media.

[12] One of the high points of Lynch's first term as Taoiseach, and possibly one of the most important events in modern Irish history, was Ireland's entry into the European Economic Community.

The admittance of Ireland was the culmination of a decade of preparation which was begun by Lynch and his predecessor, Seán Lemass, who unfortunately did not live to see what would have been his greatest achievement.

A number of social initiatives were carried out during Lynch's two periods as Taoiseach, including the introduction of Occupational Injuries Benefit, Retirement Pension, and Deserted Wife's Allowance, and an increase in the single earner's unemployment replacement rate.

He had finally gained complete control of the party, having neutralised his rivals for leadership during the Arms Crisis, and initiated Fianna Fáil's electoral comeback by securing the election of its candidate, Erskine H. Childers, as President of Ireland in 1973, defeating the odds-on favourite, the National Coalition's Tom O'Higgins of Fine Gael.

In the same year the Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Michael O'Kennedy, published a Fianna Fáil policy document calling for a withdrawal of British forces from Northern Ireland.

Controversy continued to dog the National Coalition when the President of Ireland, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, resigned in 1976, after being called a "thundering disgrace" by the Minister for Defence, Paddy Donegan.

A former Fianna Fáil cabinet Minister and a political ally of Lynch, Patrick Hillery, was eventually nominated (without election) as Ó Dálaigh's successor and sixth President of Ireland.

In what became known as the Tullymander (a pun on the word gerrymander) he re-drew every constituency in Ireland (as he had authority to do), apparently favouring Fine Gael and Labour Party candidates.

However, when the election took place the coalition was swept out of office by Fianna Fáil which won an unprecedented twenty-seat Dáil majority and over 50% of the first preference votes.

These discussions led Síle de Valera, a backbench TD, to directly challenge the leadership in a speech at the Liam Lynch commemoration at Fermoy, County Cork, on 9 September.

The visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in September proved to be a welcome break for Lynch from the day-to-day running of the country.

In addition, during the trip, Lynch claimed in an interview with the Washington Post that a five-kilometre air corridor between the border was agreed upon during the meeting with Thatcher to enhance security cooperation.

When Lynch returned he was confronted openly by Síle de Valera, Bill Loughnane, a noted hardline Republican backbencher, along with Tom McEllistrim, a member of Haughey's gang of five, at a parliamentary party meeting.

He was honoured with a state funeral which was attended by the President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former Taoisigh John Bruton, Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey, and various political persons from all parties.

The following governments were led by Jack Lynch: Partial Reference: Cork GAA website Inter-County SHC Results and Teams.