Too much credit given to man who was in right place at the right time

MUCH has been written about Bertie Ahern’s ‘legacy’. I have seen him described as Ireland’s greatest Taoiseach. These commentators need a reality check. In many respects he happened to be in the right place at the right time.

To read some commentators, one might think he single-handedly brought peace to Northern Island. Albert Reynolds, Dick Spring, John Bruton, John Major and many others had set the process in motion long before Ahern’s involvement. He was able to build on their efforts and happened to be Taoiseach when peace was eventually achieved. If the truth were acknowledged, it was 19 Muslim terrorists crashing planes into buildings in the US that caused the IRA to realise their goose was cooked.

Ahern is credited with creating the Celtic Tiger economy. In 1993, Irish economic growth was a paltry 2.7%. John Bruton became Taoiseach in 1994 and was in power for three years during which the economy grew at an average rate of 8.7%, peaking in 1997 at (I believe) 9.5%. Ahern was handed an economy well on its way to success. During his tenure as Taoiseach, Ahern’s successive governments squandered the wealth being created by the Celtic Tiger boom. This has resulted in a shortage of gardaí during a crime epidemic, a shortage of teachers, children being taught in converted toilets and dilapidated schools, a health service worthy of any third world nation. These appalling realities are also part of Ahern’s ‘legacy’. People should not be so quick to canonise him.