Daniel McConnell: Bertie comes back in from the cold 

The readmission of Ahern may soothe the souls of potential troublemakers in Fianna Fáil and help bolster Micheál Martin's own position

The onset of Brexit in 2016 allowed Bertie Ahern to rehabilitate his public persona as he was able to speak with credibility on the potential impact on Northern Ireland. Picture: RollingNews.ie

Almost 11 years ago in March 2012, I was a political journalist with the Sunday Independent.

After 15 years of hearings and scandals, the final Mahon Tribunal report was due for publication that week, which we all expected to be devastating in relation to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Just before its publication, I reached out to his primary speechwriter, Brian Murphy, to see if Ahern would do something with us about it for that Sunday’s paper.

Unsure of what was to play out, it was a delicate affair given the paper’s often controversial relationship with the former taoiseach, most notably around the 2007 general election.

For many months and years in advance of that election, the Sunday Independent had, due to the often superb reporting of my then colleague Jody Corcoran, led the way in revealing the ins and outs of Ahern’s complex financial arrangements, as disclosed to the tribunal.

But the paper’s swing to a more supportive stance of Ahern in the weeks before the election was seen by many as helping to swing the election in Fianna Fáil’s favour against the odds.

Indeed, columnist Eoghan Harris was rewarded for his dogged support of Ahern with a seat in the Seanad, the Oireachtas’ Upper House.

Tribunal conclusions

So by the time Mahon reported, the conclusions on Ahern were devastating.

The tribunal, which ran for 15 years, found that Ahern failed to truthfully account for a total of 165,214.25 Irish punts passing through accounts connected with him.

It also found that in relation to the B/T account, known as the Bertie/Tim account by bank staff in the Permanent TSB, Ahern and his associate, Tim Collins, failed to truthfully account for 50,000 Irish punts lodged into this account between 1992 and 1994.

Having found so heavily against Ahern, it was perhaps inevitable that the Drumcondra man would use the paper to announce his resignation from Fianna Fáil, days before he was to be pushed.

Whatever my limited role in the affair, given his more senior position in the paper, Jody was the one who led that Sunday’s reporting on the resignation on page 1.

At that time, Ahern recalled how he had been the “victim” of a “serious breach of constitutional justice” at the tribunal before and said: “The tribunal is not a court of law. And it is not infallible.”

Bertie Ahern arrives at the Mahon Tribunal to give evidence in 2008. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Describing that week in March 2012 as “extremely difficult and emotional” for him, he said he was “hurt and disappointed” by the findings of the Mahon tribunal. He said he believed a “grave injustice” had been done to him.

“Their findings in relation to me are not correct. They are plain and simply wrong. I have to be true to myself. It would be far easier for me to say nothing and try to forget about this nightmare. But I can’t allow this blemish on my character to go unanswered. What has been said about me is erroneous, unwarranted and unjust,” he said.

His decision to resign from Fianna Fáil, after more than 40 years as a member, was a “political decision”, he concluded, and should not be interpreted as an admission of wrong-doing.

Cast aside, Ahern sought success on the international speaking circuit where he earned six figure salaries for engagements on politics and leadership.

Test for Martin

As trying as the publication of the tribunal report was for Ahern, it was also a serious test for Micheál Martin, who was just one year into his position as leader of Fianna Fáil, which had been decimated at the polls in the 2011 general election.

Already seeking to restore his party’s severely tarnished image, Martin had little choice but to put the boot into Ahern and look to cast him out.

He said Ahern’s achievements in Northern Ireland were “real and enduring — but they cannot absolve Bertie Ahern from facing the implications of the Mahon report”.

Martin had called a meeting of the party’s national executive for the following week to propose the expulsion of the former leader for “conduct unbecoming”.

Having served at Ahern’s pleasure for 14 years at the Cabinet table, Martin’s decision to double down on Ahern did not sit easy with Ahern and his camp.

Indeed, Ahern’s brother Noel (who also was a Fianna Fáil minister) accused Martin of using the Mahon Tribunal findings to build his own media image and urged him to “hasten slowly”.

Questioning Martin’s motivation in proposing to have the former taoiseach expelled from the party, he said there might be an accusation of a new leader trying to show how macho and decisive he is, and to use this to stake his claim as the new leader of Fianna Fáil.

War of words

For much of the past decade, Ahern and Martin have engaged in a bitter war of words.

In 2016, Ahern savaged Martin in a local meeting in Drumcondra.

Ahern, speaking at a private meeting to rally support for local election candidate Brian Rohan, told delegates: “I don’t think much of the leader, I think you all know that. I’m not going to say anything nice about him.”

When asked about Ahern’s comments, Martin sought to deflect and play down their significance saying: “I’m not bothered about it.”

The onset of Brexit in 2016 has allowed Ahern to rehabilitate his public persona as he was able to speak with credibility on the potential impact on the North.

Ahern and former British prime minister Tony Blair in more recent times have also been called in from the sidelines by the British government in a bid to help overcome the impasse over the failure of the Stormont Assembly to convene.

At a time when unionist hostility toward Dublin has been running high, particularly toward Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, Ahern has been a frequent and friendly face with whom those discontent loyalists can at least speak to.

But it was the mounting calls from within Fianna Fáil in recent months ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which has prompted the change in tone from Martin.

His willingness to support Ahern’s readmission to the party in response to calls from the likes of Barry Cowen and Niall Blaney removed any obvious impediment to his return to the fold.

It was also noticeable that Martin namechecked Ahern in his opening address at his party’s Ard Fheis at the RDS in September.

The extremely warm reaction to Ahern’s return among TDs, senators and councillors shows the capacity of the party’s faithful to forgive all of his past sins.

To them Ahern represents the party’s glorious past and many of them still see him as the man who won a historic three elections in a row. Many also feel that 10 years in the wilderness is more than sufficient punishment for his perceived misdeeds.

To many younger voters and potential voters, Ahern’s past travails will mean little, but the potency of the Ahern legacy clearly has proven too irresistible for Fianna Fáil to resist.

One wonders did Ahern deliberately wait until Martin stood down as Taoiseach to make his move to rejoin the party and avoid any potential difficulty?

But from Martin’s perspective, the readmission of Ahern will soothe the souls of potential troublemakers in his party and help bolster his own position.

And that is not to be dismissed.