Full circle at historic cumann

IT was fitting that Bertie Ahern’s confused political career should end at a gathering of the O’Donovan Rossa Fianna Fáil cumann — whose mythical past and fundraising techniques helped define him.

Named after Cork Fenian leader Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the cumann has operated as part of Fianna Fáil’s Dublin northside machine for several decades. It had strong associations with Charles Haughey.

By the 1990s, the cumann was the main funding stream for Ahern’s Dublin Central electoral machine, famed for holding opulent annual fundraising dinners in venues such as the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and Clontarf Castle.

Among attendees were controversial businessman Jim Mansfield, Ahern loyalists such as Tony Kett, and numerous property speculators such as Bernard McNamara and Seán Dunne.

The exposing of the fundraising methods of O’Donovan Rossa associates, such as Manchester based businessman Micheál Wall and political fixer Des Richardson, have been central to the corruption allegations which have dogged Mr Ahern in recent years.

Historian Brian Hanley said: “The claims of links of the O’Donovan Rossa cumann to the IRB and that subterranean Fenian tradition which put its interests paramount, above electoral politics, are interesting. However Ahern’s definition of republicanism is certainly not one that the likes of O’Donovan Rossa and the earlier Fenians would easily comprehend, their commitment to republicanism for the vast majority entailed no personal gain.”