Taoiseach Brian Cowen was the first of a number of speakers to address the two-day Jack Lynch conference at University College Cork this weekend.
Mr Cowen officially opened the conference titled 'Jack Lynch: politics and sport, personality and leadership' this evening.
The conference has been organised by the Department of History at UCC and honours the life and times of the man who was Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and from 1977 to 1979.
Ambassadors from Chile, South Africa, Croatia and the Czech Republic were among those attending tonight's official opening.
Other speakers tomorrow will include Micheal O'Muircheartaigh on his sporting career, Dr Michael Kennedy, of the Royal Irish Academy on his foreign policy views and Dr John Walsh of the Department of History, Trinity College, on him as an educationalist.
