All smooth for Bertie bar one ‘damn’ slip

BERTIE AHERN yesterday set a new speed record for entering and leaving a pub.

He breezed in and out of Fleming’s pub, in Scartaglin, so fast that even seasoned tipplers hadn’t time to throw back a half-one.

“Hi folks, how’re ye doin’?” he saluted, like a man in a big hurry.

Men sitting along the counter raised their glasses, a voice from the back shouted, “We’ll win the All-Ireland and bate Dublin in the final”, and Bertie was gone again — all over within a minute.

The trip to the Sliabh Luachra village was part of the Taoiseach’s tightly scheduled visit to the two Kerry constituencies.

This was Bertie at his best on the campaign trail, in the home patch of Scartaglen publican and Fianna Fáil Councillor Tom Fleming.

Mr Fleming, who missed out by 200 votes last time, is bidding to a win a second seat for Fianna Fáil in Kerry South, along with Arts, Sport and Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue.

Upwards of 200 people turned out in the village, of three pubs, a church, a school and a supermarket, where the grass was freshly mown and the sun shone.

Bertie pressed the flesh as he stood on a platform beneath a bronze bust of the legendary Sliabh Luachra fiddle master Padraig O’Keeffe.

Local schoolchildren sang a song for him, about Kerry football, among them Tom Fleming’s three daughters, Johanna, 11, Ellen, nine, and Marie, seven.

Earlier, Bertie was greeted by around 200 supporters when he landed at Kerry Airport.

In the crowded arrivals area to meet him were the FF candidates, football legend Páidí Ó Sé, Kerry football manager Pat O’Shea, entrepreneur and hotelier Xavier McAuliffe, Kerry mayor Ted Fitzgerald, as well other local figures in the tourism and building industries.

Looking sprightly and in good form, he was formally welcomed by airport board chairman Denis Cregan, who expressed his appreciation for a recent €18 million grant which will fund major developments at the airport.

Nothing was a problem to Bertie yesterday.

Tourist figures were up, numbers of people at work were never higher and, yes, he had been proved right about Croke Park, even though he was berated when he gave the stadium an initial €5 million, several years ago.

But, traffic congestion in Castleisland continues to be a niggling problem, made worse by a recent revelation that a long-awaited bypass road for the town would be deferred for two years.

“Castleisland is a nightmare. I hate coming through the damn place,” the Taoiseach declared.

And then he corrected himself: “I love Castleisland, but I hate the traffic.”

He said the bypass project was “moving along” and later told a delegation from Castleisland Development Association that funding would be made available, provided the road design and other such matters were in order.

During the day, he met several groups and finished his visit with a public meeting in Rathmore, last night.