Loach gives Bertie the red card for Cantona photo-op

IT was the sting that shook the Bertie.

Award-winning film director Ken Loach was furious Mr Ahern turned up uninvited to the premiere of his new movie about Eric Cantona and let rip in no uncertain terms.

But brass-neck Bertie should not be surprised by the strength of the response, indeed to misquote King Eric’s seminal contribution to the English language: “When a dodgy, right-wing ex-Taoiseach follows the trawler he should be prepared for sardines to be thrown at him.”

Mr Loach, who scooped the Palme d’Or for The Wind That Shakes The Barley, was certainly looking for a fight after Bertie arrived at the opening of Looking for Eric, looking for “cheap publicity”.

Mr Loach was incensed barefaced Bertie tried to hijack the event for a photo-op to promote his no-hope brother Maurice’s candidacy in the Dublin Central by-election.

“In a way the heart of the film is in what Eric sees as the sweetest moment of his career. It wasn’t a goal, it was a pass – not a moment of individual brilliance reflecting on one man, it was a contribution to the team. I guess that’s one of the poignant motifs of the film. Trust your teammates always, otherwise we are lost. If you wanted to be po-faced about it you could say that it was an anti-Thatcherite paean to solidarity, which made the appearance of a rather dodgy, right-wing politician at our premiere all the more troublesome and painful,” Mr Loach told Newstalk.

Mr Ahern was there to give the Manchester United legend the gift of a jersey – which was a novel twist on the former Taoiseach’s usual Mancunian machinations.

One notorious visit to Manchester while Finance Minister saw a group of businessmen he said he did not know “force” £9,000 sterling into his hands, the Mahon corruption probe heard.

Indeed, Manchester cashgate was but one incident during a period when men would just come up and pin money on the Finance Minister as if he were a bride at a Greek wedding.

The film’s writer Paul Laverty summed up the Bertie-Eric encounter best in the faux-Cantona philosophical statement: “The higher a monkey climbs into the tree, the more you can see of its arse.”