From the production company behind Haughey (2005) and Fine Gael: A Family at War (2004) comes a four-part series which explores the question: who is the real Bertie Ahern?
History may remember him as an important political figure who everybody knew, but nobody knew much about. He seemed a mass of contradictions. A self-proclaimed socialist who governed as a laissez-faire capitalist. A deeply religious man whose official partner was not his wife. The son of an IRA man who led his party to ‘abandon’ Articles 2 and 3.
Bertie as a series tells a remarkable story. With no connections in the party, Bertie Ahern fought and won a Dáil seat on his first attempt. Almost uniquely, he survived the civil wars over Haughey’s leadership unscathed. He remained underestimated by his colleagues even as he rose to the leadership. As Taoiseach, he formed three back-to-back governments and presided over a decade-long boom – jumping ship just before it hit the rocks.
From family and friends we get insights into what makes this complex man tick, and how the ‘Drumcondra Mafia’ helped to force his way to the very top. Through Bertie Ahern and his Ministers we can look behind the scenes at the last three decades of Irish politics, and witness his successes and his failures which culminated in his resignation from the post of Taoiseach on 6 May 2008.
Bertie features more than 70 contributions. These include his family: estranged wife Miriam, daughters Cecelia and Georgina, sister Eileen and brother Noel; politicians including Charlie McCreevy, Mary Harney, Brian Lenihan, Micheal Martin, Willie O’Dea, Dermot Ahern, Mary O’Rourke and Tony Blair; and constituency activists Chris Wall, Paddy Duffy, Liam Cooper and Royston Brady. The series includes interviews with contributors to the ‘good will’ loans including Des Richardson, Joe Burke, Barry English and David McKenna. Bertie also features a lengthy interview with Bertie Ahern recorded on 2 July 2008.
Made by Mint productions for RTÉ, Bertie is directed by Steve Carson, produced by Noeleen Leddy, series produced by Ailbhe Maher and edited by Nathan Nugent.
‘The Bertie series is an honest and independent political biography of scope and insight, and an effective primer in recent Irish political affairs and in the nature of power and politics,’ says Kevin Dawson, commissioning editor for RTÉ Factual.
Episode one
The opening episode of Bertie takes us from childhood through to the election of 1989. Insider accounts show how a formidable constituency operation was created around him in Drumcondra, a ‘machine’ that provided him with the electoral and financial muscle to reach the top.
Bertie Ahern was born in September 1951, the youngest of five children. As a youth, Ahern helped his father on the city farm at All Hallows College, and followed every local sport.
Friends from Drumcondra would form the basis of Bertie Ahern’s brash and energetic canvassing team when he was added to the Fianna Fail ticket for the 1977 general election. Not expected to win, Ahern found himself swept along in Jack Lynch’s landslide. Election to the Dail was a real achievement for a first time candidate with no money, and no family contacts. During the civil wars over Haughey’s leadership, Bertie Ahern displayed early signs of his political skills – remaining on good terms with the dissidents while enforcing the Boss’s will as a party whip.
In the early 80s, Bertie Ahern’s attention was firmly in consolidating his position locally. His supporters – christened by Haughey the ‘Drumcondra Mafia’ – seized on a headquarters plan to rationalise the Fianna Fail organisation in the capital.
Bertie Ahern was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1986. By then, however, his personal life was unravelling. By the time he was appointed Minister of Labour in 1987 – his first Cabinet position – his marriage had broken down. Speaking openly of their split, Miriam Ahern describes it as a ‘very difficult time’.
In the late 80s Bertie Ahern would add the final pieces to the organisation that would help propel him to the highest political office. A small group of financial supporters established St Luke’s as a political base – and a home – for Bertie Ahern. The series goes inside St Luke’s to see the first floor apartment where Ahern lived following his separation from Miriam.
The 1989 general election was a costly gamble for Charles Haughey, who failed yet again to win an overall majority. Behind the scenes, though, some prominent Fianna Fail Ministers had a good election, taking tens of thousands of pounds in so-called ‘political donations’. Padraig Flynn would later admit receiving £50,000 from a developer called Tom Gilmartin in that period. A decade later, it would be Tom Gilmartin who would make similar allegations against Bertie Ahern that would ultimately force him to resign as Taoiseach.