Over the years, our political leaders have come from a range of backgrounds – the current Taoiseach was a teacher, his two predecessors worked as a solicitor and an accountant respectively. But most of our Taoisigh, whatever their original career, were full time politicians at the time they won power. Jack Costello was a bit different – he was very much a part-time politician, and you can certainly argue that his real love was not politics, but the law, at which he was extremely good and extremely successful.