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.