Beleaguered Bertie dances with wolves

AFTER the emotional roller coaster of his Princess Diana-style soul bearing TV interview, it was a more subdued Bertie Ahern who faced the Dáil yesterday.

Joe Higgins accused him of using RTÉ’s Bryan Dobson “like an agony aunt” in that now legendary small screen encounter as even the mild mannered Enda Kenny pointed out it was only Cabinet members who seemed determined to bring the Taoiseach’s private life into the affair.

At least Diana only had three people in her marriage breakdown, Mr Ahern’s boasted a dozen more, all “pressurising” him to take money. As the Fianna Fáil benches groaned under the weight of an unusually full compliment of deputies, Mr Ahern moaned under the weight of the evidence.