Ahern’s departure not what he envisaged
Of course, this is not the way he envisaged going.
When he was re-elected for a third consecutive term as taoiseach following the 2007 general election, Mr Ahern built a novel and seemingly impregnable coalition that had a comfortable majority in the Dáil. The Fianna Fáil-Green-PD government looked capable of surviving its full five-year term to 2012. Mr Ahern effectively anointed his successor by talking up the talents of his deputy, Brian Cowen. The plan seemed clear: an orderly hand-over some time in early to mid-2011, with Mr Ahern departing to the sound of applause in his ears and the tantalising possibility of running for the presidency later in the year.
But the plan became derailed by a tribunal established under his own watch. In 1997, shortly after he won power for the first time, his Government set up an inquiry to examine allegations of corruption in the planning process. Mr Ahern could never have guessed that the tribunal would run and run and eventually ensnare him with tawdry revelations about bank accounts, safes and briefcases stuffed with money from mysterious sources. But ensnare him it did, and while Mr Ahern managed to cling to office for almost two years from the time of the initial revelations, he eventually bowed to the inevitable, stepping down as taoiseach in May 2008. He did so after a long farewell lasting a month, the highlight of which was an address in April 2008 to the US Houses of Congress in which he dwelt at length on his finest achievement as Taoiseach: the success of the Northern peace process. He received a standing ovation as he declared: “Ireland is at peace.”
The North will undoubtedly be his chief legacy, and no shortage of those involved — Tony Blair being the latest in his memoir — have hailed the tenacity and dedication which Mr Ahern brought to the process.
Economic prosperity, by rights, should have been another badge of distinction. However, on his watch, the property sector was allowed grow out of hand and the tax base was eroded, while competitiveness declined sharply as wage levels and prices soared. The disastrous effects of these policies have become clear for all to see.
As a result of both the recession and his tribunal woes, Mr Ahern’s once glittering reputation has been tarnished, and severely. Nonetheless, he appears to still harbour ambitions about the Aras, judging by recent comments.
However, he does at least depart in the knowledge nobody can take his chief legacy from him. He will be remembered and thanked (and rightly so) for the North.
- April 1998
The legacy of Bertie Ahern has been sullied by the economic collapse and his own bizarre finances. However, he has and will continue to point to a sustained and deeply rooted peace in Northern Ireland as the pinnacle of his and many other’s political careers. It began with the Good Friday Agreement, which paved the way for devolved government in Stormont, and ended with his address to the Joint Houses of Parliament in Westminster in May 2007.
- June 2004
As the mantle of the EU presidency was about to pass to Ireland, Mr Ahern and his team finalised the closest thing the collective got to a constitution. It ultimately fell in France and Holland. Then Ireland almost collapsed its successor, negotiated in Lisbon. But for that summer he was top of the class.
- May 2007
Bertie Ahern defied the pundits and, for a long time, the polls, to deliver a stunning third term in office for Fianna Fáil. Through populist policies and a record of sustained economic growth since 1997 he made light of increasing pressure at a personal level to rip apart a united opposition. He managed the unprecedented feat of topping the poll in Dublin Central and dragging in his running mate, Cyprian Brady, who earned less than 1,000 first preference votes.
- Spring 2008
It was the swansong sweeter than any. Instead of running from office embarrassed by the evidence at the Tribunal in Dublin Castle Mr Ahern enjoyed an unprecedented international farewell. In Washington he had the honour of addressing the House of Congress. At the Battle of the Boyne site he met and embraced a glowing Reverend Ian Paisley. And in the Dáil he delivered his own political epitaph.
- 1993/1994
According to Mr Ahern the breakup in his marriage left him living upstairs in his constituency office. He was forced to rely on loans from friends and a whip-around by supporters at a dinner in Manchester while he was Minister for Finance. He recounted the era in a tearful interview with RTÉ’s Bryan Dobson.
- March 2008
The Mahon Tribunal’s investigation into Mr Ahern’s finances reaches its Rubicon when his former secretary, Grainne Carruth, breaks down in the witness box tearing apart his argument that he had not dealt in sterling. He decided to jump before he was pushed and resigned from office shortly afterwards.
- June 2009
The legacy of the so-called Drumcondra Mafia was thought to be strong enough to withstand any onslaught. However when his former constituency rival, Tony Gregory, died and caused a by-election in Dublin Central the result showed how completely the local electorate had shunned him.
His anointed candidate failed miserably. Worse, it was his older brother, Maurice. To compound the humiliation Maurice lost his council seat.
- September 2010
Mr Ahern’s gift for populism and appreciation of the punters’ mindset went wrong when he crawled into a kitchen cupboard to peddle his News of the World sports’ column for a television advert. A key weather vane for his base, RTÉ’s Liveline, voted it the most shameful moment of a pretty shameful year in Irish public life. Any lingering ambition to run for president was gone.
- December 2010
Within weeks of the International Monetary Fund being called in to bail out the country buckling under the remnants of the construction boom Finance minister Brian Lenihan used his budget speech to lambast the public sector spending legacy of the governments led by Mr Ahern and a tax policy which was unsustainable. With Mr Ahern’s former friends in construction and banking all in the cross hairs of an angry public, respect for the three-time taoiseach was at its lowest.
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