Enda Kenny, a man not to be underestimated

Few people truly witnessed Enda Kenny’s “patient, steely determination” until he fought off the heave against his leadership of Fine Gael in 2010, RTÉ broadcaster Sean O’Rourke has said.

But it had always been there, as evidenced by the conditions Mr Kenny laid down to run for politics in the first place, he said.

This was in 1975 when Fine Gael asked him to run in the by-election caused by the death of his father, the late junior minister Henry.