Albert Reynolds was a political entrepreneur

ALBERT REYNOLDS was a unique taoiseach in that he was also a highly successful businessman. Unlike any of the other taoisigh who held the office since the foundation of the State, he came into politics on the back of a career as an entrepreneur.

That background informed his time at the top. The can-do attitude of successful business people was a key ingredient in his role in pushing along the peace process, culminating in the IRA ceasefire of 1994.

But his instincts as a businessman may well have also contributed to his shortened tenure as taoiseach. Within months of the ceasefire, he was forced from office by his coalition partner Labour, largely because of his inability to practice the art of politics in all its elements of fudge, compromise and, as best exemplified by his successor Bertie Ahern, suppression of ego.