Ahern risks losing his political lap of honour the longer he stays on

THERE is no good reason for Bertie Ahern to stay in politics much longer.

Maybe Eamon Gilmore is correct in suggesting the best thing would be for him to use his address to the US Congress in April to mark the end of his contribution to public life.

It will be the second historic address for Ahern, after he told the House of Lords in May last year that Ireland and Britain were now “in an era of agreement... of new politics and new realities… Ireland’s hour has come; a time of peace, of prosperity, of old values and new beginnings”. There is no place for Ahern in those “new beginnings”.