Ahern and Blair make it onto Nobel peace prize shortlist

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his British counterpart Tony Blair are in the running for the Nobel peace prize, but then so too are Bono and Geldof — that’s Bob, not Peaches.

For those inclined to bet on outsiders, Paddy Power is offering 66-1 on both Ahern and Blair to land the prestigious prize.

Bono, who has been nominated more times than U2 have had Top 10 hits, is given odds of 50-1, while Sir Bob fares better than the lot of them at 33-1.

Freakishly funny money would have to go on Peaches or George Bush.

The prizes for literature and economics are due to be announced over the coming days.

Needless to say, Mr Ahern has not been nominated for the economics gong.

Altogether, 164 individuals and 33 organisations have been nominated for this year’s peace prize.

This is slightly less than the 2005 record of 199 candidates.

Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the Esperanto movement have also reportedly been nominated, as have Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng and Israel’s Mordechai Vanunu.

The Nobel committee will announce the winner in mid-October, and the award will be formally presented at a ceremony at the Oslo City Hall on December 10.

The peace prize is one of five prizes that have been awarded annually since 1901 under the auspices of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.

It has been called “the world’s most prestigious prize” with the award going to Al Gore in 2007. To date a total of 95 individuals and 23 organisations have been awarded the prize.