[2] O'Kennedy was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, into a family that had strong links to Sinn Féin and the Old IRA.

He was educated locally at St. Mary's National School before later attending St Flannan's College in Ennis, County Clare.

He briefly studied for the priesthood at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he was a contemporary of future Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume.

[3] He remained on the backbenches until 1970 when the Arms Crisis resulted in a major reshuffle at cabinet and junior ministerial levels.

O'Kennedy's tenure as Minister for Finance was short-lived, delivering a stringent budget, as he took the position of European commissioner in January 1981.

O'Kennedy took over as European Commissioner for Personnel, Administration and the Statistics Office and was disappointed not to be made vice-president in the Thorn Commission.

He quickly grew bored of the mundane day-to-day work as a commissioner and missed the cut-and-thrust nature of Irish politics, which was going through a volatile period.

O'Kennedy's return was seen as an attempt to assert his claim to the future leadership of Fianna Fáil, something that had been a contentious issue under Haughey and his failure to secure an overall majority in two elections.

Fianna Fáil returned to power with the help of several Independent TDs, and O'Kennedy demanded a senior government position.

The government fell in October that same year, and Fianna Fáil lost power at the subsequent general election.

A period of instability followed within Fianna Fáil as several TDs attempted to oust Charles Haughey as party leader.

Desmond O'Malley was seen as the clear front-runner to succeed Haughey; however, O'Kennedy's name was also mentioned alongside other party stalwarts like Gerry Collins and Brian Lenihan.

In February 1992, Haughey stepped down as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, and Albert Reynolds won the subsequent leadership election by a large majority.