Fianna Fβil first approached Jack Lynch to become a political candidate in the early 1940s but it was not until 1948 that he allowed himself to be nominated as a candidate. It was the start of a long and illustrious political career.
and built up a highly successful practice in the Cork Circuit Court. On August 10th, 1946, he married Mairin O'Connor. They had met in 1943 when both were holidaying in Glengariff.
Shortly beforehand, he had been approached by Fianna Fβil in Cork to contest a by-election but refused. Rumours that Fine Gael had approached him as well were untrue but in 1948 an attempt was made by Clann na Poblachta to recruit him.
Although his immediate family was non-political, there was a strong republican tradition among his west Cork relations. He showed a growing interest in Fianna Fβil following the party's initial approach and in 1948 allowed himself to be nominated as a candidate in the general election, although still not formally a member of the party. The night of the nomination he joined the Brothers Delaney cumann in Cork and remained a member until his active participation in Fianna Fβil ceased.
Mr Lynch topped the Fianna Fβil poll, helped as much by his sporting reputation - and enthusiastic Glen Rovers election workers - as by Fianna Fβil's electoral machine. It was during the campaign that Mr Lynch first met de Valera, who made him researcher and secretary of the parliamentary party.
After Fianna Fβil returned to power in 1951 de Valera appointed Mr Lynch a parliamentary secretary "with roving responsibilities for the Gaeltacht and congested districts", as Mr Lynch himself later described it. As such, he was responsible for initiating many infrastructural improvements in Gaeltacht areas.
When Fianna Fβil lost the 1954 general election, Mr Lynch retained his seat but concentrated on rebuilding his long neglected legal practice.
This did not stop him from comfortably winning in the 1957 election, after which de Valera offered Mr Lynch a ministerial post in the Gaeltacht or education. Mr Lynch said later that he and his wife would have preferred if he had concentrated on his legal career.
During his two-year tenure in education, Mr Lynch removed the ban on married women teachers and initiated major building projects at St Patrick's, Drumcondra, Dublin, which he identified as the main teacher training institution for the coming generation. Other initiatives of Mr Lynch included increased per capita grants for primary and secondary schools and the introduction of oral Irish for the Leaving Certificate with bonus marks to encourage pupil interest in Irish.
When de Valera became President in 1959 the new Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, appointed Mr Lynch to Industry and Commerce, where he played a major role in the implementation of the first programme for economic development which provided the basis for the economic boom of the 1960s and early 1970s.
The second programme, 1963 to 1970, saw the negotiation of the Free Trade Agreement with Britain in 1965 and the development of a more open and developed economy, without which EEC membership in 1972 would not have been possible.
In 1965 Mr Lynch was promoted to Minister for Finance. The increased public investment programme led to higher taxation, especially on many luxury consumer items, including confectionary, which earned the new Minister the nickname for a time of "Sweet Jack Lynch." But he also increased old age pensions and other benefits substantially.
When Sean Lemass unexpectedly announced his resignation as Taoiseach and Fianna Fβil leader in 1967, it quickly became obvious that, for the first time in the party's history, there would be a contest to find a successor. Mr Lynch only agreed to go forward under considerable pressure from colleagues concerned that a bitter leadership battle would ensue between a younger generation of ambitious politicians which included Charles Haughey, George Colley and Neil Blaney.
When it became clear that Mr Lynch was the preferred candidate of the party's old guard and the parliamentary party, other candidates withdrew from the contest, except for Mr Colley, who had replaced Mr Lynch as Minister for Industry and Commerce, and who was comfortably defeated by 52 votes to 19. Despite this, relations between the two men remained good and when Mr Lynch resigned in 1979 it was to Mr Colley that he lent his support in the next succession contest with Mr Haughey.