‘Separation reason for my tangled finances’

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern has blamed his separation for the tangled financial web that caused his Mahon Tribunal difficulties and ultimately led to his downfall.

In a new four-part TV documentary that begins tonight, Mr Ahern is challenged about the lodgments of large amounts of cash to his accounts in the early 1990s that became the focus of the tribunal’s inquiries.

Mr Ahern separated from his wife Miriam in the late 1980s but it was 1993 before the protracted legal proceedings concluded.

He lived rent-free in an apartment above his St Luke’s constituency office for a period following the separation, before buying a house in Drumcondra — matters that the tribunal also examined.

“The main thing to remember about all of this stuff is that if I wasn’t separated, I wouldn’t have been staying in St Luke’s in an apartment, I wouldn’t have been trying to buy my own house, I wouldn’t have been cashing my cheques, or friends wouldn’t have been giving me money — so all three of the issues that created so much problems for me were all directly related to the fact I was separated,” he says in the second part of the programme, to be aired next week.

Meanwhile, his long-time associate former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson denies that donors gave money to the party in the expectation of favours.

“No, no. People help Fianna Fáil because they like Fianna Fáil, and that’s the bottom line.”

Asked why they “like” Fianna Fáil, Mr Richardson responds: “They want to see Fianna Fáil in power... because maybe under FF, they will have more success.”

The first part of the documentary, airing tonight, focuses on the formative influences in Mr Ahern’s life and the early years of his career.

It reveals how he was among the protesters outside the British embassy in Dublin in 1972 when it was burnt down. Republicans used the protestors as cover to throw firebombs at the embassy. The protest was in reaction to Bloody Sunday in Derry, during which British paratroopers shot 26 civil rights protestors, killing 13. Despite being among the crowd, Mr Ahern insists he never considered joining the IRA at the time.

The programme also details how he built his legendary constituency operation, complete with ward bosses known as the “Drumcondra Mafia”, and examines how his all-consuming political career led to his marriage breakdown.

“In Dáil terms he was very good in his career but there was a time also that I was very disappointed in him,” Miriam Ahern says. “He seemed to withdraw from family life and from me. I couldn’t understand that. That was a really very difficult time.”

Bertie, by Mint Productions, begins on RTÉ One tonight at 9.35.