There’s one person who had a very close view of life on Planet Bertie

MUCH of Charles Haughey’s financial need was caused by the requirement to keep his mistress Terry Keane in the style to which she had become accustomed.

Could Bertie Ahern’s financial needs in the controversial 1992-’94 period have had as much to do with keeping his new partner Celia Larkin happy as sorting out the final arrangements of his separation from his wife Miriam, as he has claimed to date?

This is a question from which many people have recoiled until now, and with good reason. Ahern is entitled to privacy in relation to personal matters and both his separation from his wife and the establishment (and subsequent collapse) of his relationship with Larkin fell into that category, too.