123 Facts About Bertie Ahern

Bertie Ahern served as a Teachta Dala from 1977 to 2011.

In 1994, Ahern was elected the sixth Leader of Fianna Fail.

Bertie Ahern is the second-longest serving Taoiseach, after Eamon de Valera.

Bertie Ahern resigned as Taoiseach on 6 May 2008, in the wake of revelations made in Mahon Tribunal, and was succeeded by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.

Fianna Fail proposed to expel politicians censured by the tribunal, but Bertie Ahern resigned from the party prior to the expulsion motion being moved.

Bertie Ahern was born in Drumcondra, Dublin, the youngest of five children of Con and Julia Bertie Ahern, both natives of County Cork, who married in October 1937.

In Dublin, Bertie Ahern's father worked as a farm manager at All Hallows College, Drumcondra.

Bertie Ahern's father Con was born into a farming family near Ballyfeard, which is located near Kinsale, County Cork, in 1904.

Bertie Ahern's mother came from a farming background and was from near Castledonovan, west County Cork.

Bertie Ahern was a supporter of Eamon de Valera and the Anti-Treaty IRA.

Bertie Ahern was a member of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the IRA.

Bertie Ahern remained a militant Irish Republican for decades after the War of Independence.

Bertie Ahern was educated at St Patrick's National School, Drumcondra and at St Aidan's Christian Brothers, Whitehall.

Bertie Ahern received his third level education at the College of Commerce, Rathmines, part of the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Bertie Ahern has claimed or it has been claimed by others in circulated biographies that he was educated at University College Dublin and the London School of Economics, but neither university has any records that show Bertie Ahern was ever one of their students.

Bertie Ahern subsequently worked in the Accounts Department of the Mater Hospital, Dublin.

Bertie Ahern is a supporter of Dublin GAA and attends Dublin matches in Croke Park.

Bertie Ahern appeared as a pundit on RTE Two's The Premiership programme in 2001.

Bertie Ahern first became involved in a Fianna Fail by-election campaign in 1965, climbing lamp posts to hang election posters in Drumcondra.

Bertie Ahern became a member of Fianna Fail at the age of 17, and in the 1969 general election he assisted with the election campaign in his constituency.

Bertie Ahern's first ran for office during the landslide 1977 general election when Fianna Fail formed the last single-party majority government with a 20-seat Dail majority, the largest ever.

Bertie Ahern received 4,000 first preference votes in the newly created Dublin Finglas constituency and was elected with transfers from other candidates.

Bertie Ahern later switched to the North Inner City LEA before standing down before the 1991 local elections.

In subsequent elections Bertie Ahern became one of the highest vote-getters in the country.

Vote management elsewhere usually means trying to divide a party's votes equally among its candidates, but in Dublin Central, it meant trying to direct every available first preference to Bertie Ahern and taking it from there.

In 1979, when Charles Haughey and George Colley, both constituency colleagues, fought a divisive battle for the position of party leader and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern is believed to have backed Haughey.

Bertie Ahern had served on a health committee with Haughey in the mid-1970s.

Bertie Ahern increased his personal vote in all three general elections of 1981 and 1982, even out-polling his running mate, George Colley, previously a candidate for Taoiseach.

Bertie Ahern became Minister for Labour, which was not considered an important portfolio.

On behalf of the government Bertie Ahern negotiated the first national wage agreement between unions and employers, The Programme for National Recovery.

Bertie Ahern retained his position as Minister for Labour in the government of the 26th Dail.

In 1990, Bertie Ahern negotiated the Programme for Economic and Social Progress.

In 1990, Bertie Ahern was campaign manager for the presidential bid of his cabinet colleague, Brian Lenihan.

Bertie Ahern was damaged in the short term by being seen as the first Fianna Fail presidential election campaign manager to lose a presidential election.

Bertie Ahern was encouraged by Haughey and others to bid for the position.

Bertie Ahern was apprehensive, and remained out of the contest, allowing Reynolds to become party leader and Taoiseach.

In 1993, Bertie Ahern said in an interview, that tax cheaters would be jailed.

Bertie Ahern is under scrutiny from the Mahon Tribunal for this cash payment and subsequent revelations in May 2007, of cash received from businessman Micheal Wall.

Bertie Ahern succeeded Reynolds as the leader; the first unopposed candidate since Sean Lemass in 1959.

Bertie Ahern was elected as the sixth leader of Fianna Fail on 19 December 1994.

Bertie Ahern quickly formed a coalition government with the Progressive Democrats, with the support of four Independent TDs.

On 26 June 1997, aged 45, Bertie Ahern became the youngest ever Taoiseach.

In 2009, Bertie Ahern said his decision in 2001, to create the Financial Regulator was one of the main reasons for the collapse of the Irish banking sector and "if I had a chance again I wouldn't do it".

The Government's rating fell badly in opinion polls and Bertie Ahern's popularity dropped to its minimum.

In November 2004, Bertie Ahern celebrated ten years as leader of Fianna Fail.

The strains in the coalition eased after Bertie Ahern apologised for the second time in the Dail and agreed to tighten up on ethics legislation.

The Moriarty Tribunal reporting in December 2006, criticised Bertie Ahern for having signed blank cheques for the then party leader Charles Haughey, who misappropriated taxpayers' funds for personal use.

Bertie Ahern hoped to win a third general election in 2007.

Bertie Ahern received staunch support during the campaign from Eoghan Harris, writing in the Sunday Independent.

Harris declared that the anti-Bertie Ahern campaign was the most sinister manipulation of the Irish media that he had seen in his lifetime and that Sinn Fein would be the main beneficiaries of a fall in support for Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail.

Bertie Ahern dissolved the Dail in April 2007 and called an election for 24 May 2007.

Unusually, Bertie Ahern dissolved the Dail on a Sunday morning, claiming that President McAleese's foreign trip that week made it necessary despite the trip having been long-planned.

Bertie Ahern's party received 78 seats a loss of three seats from the 2002 election result.

Bertie Ahern's reputation was damaged by the accusation of cash gifts received that have transmuted to loans from businessmen.

Bertie Ahern was criticised in the foreign press as well as in the Irish media.

Bertie Ahern stated in an interview in the Village on 22 May 2007, that he intended to retire from politics when he turned 60 years of age.

Bertie Ahern stated this would mean standing down as Taoiseach before the end of the Dail term, which would have ended in 2012 at the latest.

On 4 July 2007, Bertie Ahern stated at a conference in Donegal, that he did not understand why people sitting on the sidelines, "cribbing and moaning" about the economy, did not commit suicide.

Bertie Ahern later accepted responsibility for the overheating of the property sector but took no responsibility for the failings of the Central Bank of Ireland.

Opposition parties had previously been muted in their reaction but in September 2007, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore, called for Bertie Ahern to resign in light of his appearance at the Mahon Tribunal and on 23 September 2007, Leader of the Opposition Enda Kenny was heavily critical of the "rambling, incoherent" answers offered by Bertie Ahern to the Mahon tribunal in September 2007.

The disquiet within the coalition was further emphasised when Green Party leader John Gormley, said that Bertie Ahern should clarify the contradiction between his evidence and that of his former secretary Grainne Carruth.

On 2 April 2008, Bertie Ahern announced his intention to resign as Taoiseach and as leader of Fianna Fail on 6 May 2008.

On 30 April 2008, in Washington DC, Bertie Ahern became the sixth Irish leader to address the United States Congress.

Bertie Ahern is the sixth person who has addressed both the UK Parliament and the United States Congress.

In January 2010, Bertie Ahern has said he would have no difficulties giving evidence to the investigation into banking, nor having his testimony heard in public.

Bertie Ahern said that one of the first things that Brian Cowen had done when he became Minister for Finance was to abolish many of the property tax incentives.

Bertie Ahern presided over many of the incentives that benefited property developers.

On 25 October 2007, Bertie Ahern was criticised after the government accepted a recommendation from the Review Body on Higher Remuneration that senior civil servants and ministers receive pay increases.

Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan, accused Bertie Ahern of attempting in his autobiography to take credit for the Gregory deal by claiming he was present in negotiations between Charles Haughey and Tony Gregory and that he had provided Haughey with estimates from Dublin City Council.

Bertie Ahern had gone with Haughey to the negotiations with Gregory; he was immediately asked to leave by Gregory and was forced to wait publicly in his car outside for three and a half hours.

Bertie Ahern was investigated by the Mahon Tribunal, following an allegation by Tom Gilmartin, that Bertie Ahern had been paid money by Owen O'Callaghan in return for favours.

Bertie Ahern was criticised by the Moriarty Tribunal for signing blank cheques for the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey, without asking what those cheques were for.

Bertie Ahern told the tribunal that a policy of signing blank cheques was used on the Fianna Fail party leader's account for reasons of "administrative convenience".

In September 2006 The Irish Times printed claims allegedly leaked from the Mahon Tribunal that Bertie Ahern had received money from a millionaire businessman while Minister for Finance in 1993.

Bertie Ahern has admitted that he did receive money but said on being interviewed that:.

Bertie Ahern regarded the money as a loan, but he conceded that no repayments had at that time been made and no interest has been paid.

Bertie Ahern said that he had attempted to repay it, but that his friends would not accept repayment.

Bertie Ahern stated that this money was again unsolicited, that it was a gift and therefore not subject to tax as it had been received when abroad, and that it was paid to him after he gave an after-dinner speech at an ad hoc function.

Bertie Ahern claimed that the money was given to him as a private citizen, not to him in his then role as Minister for Finance, and that no other payments were received by him after speaking at other similar functions.

Bertie Ahern had told the tribunal during his evidence in February 2008, that the lodgements to his and his daughters' accounts had come from his salary as a politician.

Bertie Ahern claimed this was money he had saved over a substantial period of time when he had had no active bank account.

Bertie Ahern was asked by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte whether, in the absence of a bank account, he had kept the money in a "sock in the hot-press" and Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins asked if he had kept the money "in a shoe-box".

Bertie Ahern replied that he had kept the money "in his own possession".

Bertie Ahern expanded on his apology to the Dail of the previous week, which he described as unqualified.

Bertie Ahern said there would now be a change in the ethics law requiring office holders offered a gift from friends to consult the Standards in Public Office Commission and to accept their ruling.

Bertie Ahern won a libel action against a Cork businessman, Denis "Starry" O'Brien, defending himself against this allegation.

However, broadcaster Eamon Dunphy, has testified in the Mahon Tribunal that he was told by developer Owen O'Callaghan, that Bertie Ahern was "taken care of" to support a shopping centre development in the 1990s.

Bertie Ahern was responsible for placing disgraced former Dublin West TD Liam Lawlor, as head of the Dail Ethics Committee, despite having been told by Tom Gilmartin many years beforehand that Lawlor had corruptly demanded money and had thwarted Gilmartin's plans when Gilmartin refused to comply.

On 13 September 2007, Bertie Ahern commenced four days of testimony under oath at the Mahon Tribunal.

On 21 September 2007, Bertie Ahern again changed his story and said he could not remember key events at the centre of the controversy.

On 24 September 2007, there were further discrepancies, memory lapses and contradictions to his testimony under oath with Bertie Ahern agreeing with the assertions of the tribunal that there are inconsistencies and contradictions in his statements compared to bank records and the testimony of Larkin.

Again on 20 and 21 December 2007, Bertie Ahern spent two further days under questioning by the Mahon tribunal about his finances in the 1990s.

In January 2008, it was revealed that Bertie Ahern was in discussion with the Revenue Commissioners about his liability for tax on the sums received in Manchester and on his tax clearance status as declared in 2002, before details of the Manchester payments were revealed.

Bertie Ahern has taken a High Court action to prevent the tribunal from questioning him on the information that he released in the Dail in 2006.

On 4 June 2008, Bertie Ahern admitted that he knew about sterling deposits before his secretary's testimony, but said to laughter at his Tribunal appearance on that day that those deposits were winnings from horse racing.

An inability to declare tax compliance by a prominent individual such as Bertie Ahern would prove highly embarrassing, and could potentially have had more serious repercussions.

Bertie Ahern was, at the time, the only member of the Oireachtas not to have a tax clearance certificate.

On 14 January 2008, while on a visit to South Africa, Bertie Ahern accused Enda Kenny, Leader of the Opposition of telling a "bare-faced lie" about Bertie Ahern's tax situation.

Bertie Ahern admitted to the Mahon Tribunal on 21 February 2008, for the first time, that he did not pay tax on substantial payments that he received when Minister for Finance in the 1990s.

In 1993, the then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, who was then Minister for Finance, wrote to developer Owen O'Callaghan seeking a substantial donation.

In September 2011, Bertie Ahern said he believed that he would have "done all right" in the presidential election but for the decline in the popularity of Fianna Fail.

Bertie Ahern said he had made it clear as far back as 2002, that it was always his plan to step down as a TD before he was 60.

Bertie Ahern said in January 2011, there was no hope of Fianna Fail retaining two seats in his Dublin Central constituency.

Bertie Ahern said in April 2018 that he is considering running for President in 2025 as an independent candidate.

In October 2018, Bertie Ahern was appointed to chair the Bougainville Referendum Commission, which is responsible for preparing an independence referendum in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, which took place in December 2019.

Bertie Ahern had no social or economic vision for the state he led.

Bertie Ahern is the subject of a Rubberbandits single released in August 2020.

Bertie Ahern was appointed to an advisory board of an Irish company Parker Green International.

Bertie Ahern was appointed Chairman of the International Forestry Fund on 1 January 2010.

Bertie Ahern wrote a sports column in the now-closed Rupert Murdoch-owned Sunday newspaper News of the World.

Since resigning as Taoiseach in 2008, Bertie Ahern has been a regular visitor to China.

In February 2015, Bertie Ahern received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

In December 2019 Bertie Ahern acted as chairman of the referendum commission for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in a non-binding vote with regards to independence from Papua New Guinea.

Bertie Ahern rejoined Fianna Fail in 2023 amid speculation he was considering running for President in 2025.

Bertie Ahern has two daughters from his marriage: Georgina and Cecelia.

Bertie Ahern was the first, and is the only, Taoiseach to have a legal separation from his wife.

Bertie Ahern is a supporter of Dublin GAA and attends inter-county matches in Croke Park.

Bertie Ahern appeared as a pundit on RTE Two's The Premiership programme in 2001.

Bertie Ahern attends Mass every Saturday evening in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.

Bertie Ahern has said that he lives by the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and his own conscience, and hopes to get to heaven when he dies.

Bertie Ahern recalled how Paisley began a prayer in the Irish Embassy and he joined in with him.

Bertie Ahern said the prayer was "like our Confiteor" and officials had wondered why they had spent so much time alone.

Bertie Ahern rationalised inexplicable events, such as the death of a young person, by stating that God "cannot influence every single thing".