Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Daily Mail (London, England)

THE ANGELS OF DISASTER; Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fail machine fought tooth and nail to keep him in power. In the end, two women were the catalysts for his fall: Celia Larkin and Grainne Carruth.

Article Excerpt
Byline: PAT LEAHY

A BOOK by PAT LEAHY takes you inside the Fianna Fail party just as the most talented politician of his generation, Bertie Ahern, faced his Waterloo. In our final extract, the tension mounts as Ahern flounders at the Mahon Tribunal and his demise is hastened by revelations about two women -- one a former girlfriend, the other a secretary at his powerbase, St Luke's...

FOR hundreds of years, Dublin Castle has loomed large in the psyche of the Irish people. The seat of British power, it was also the policing and security hub of the ruling administration, and its cells and dungeons had seen many a gruesome interrogation. The hangar-like room where the Mahon Tribunal's hearings took place was more comfortable than the dungeons, but it must have aroused similar feelings in some of the witnesses.

On Thursday, September 13, 2007, Bertie Ahern followed Celia Larkin and Micheal Wall into the witness box. It was a gala day at Dublin Castle. Crowds awaited Ahern's arrival and thronged the large hall where the hearings were conducted. They hung around afterwards to cheer and jeer him on the way out; the tribunal team was also cheered and applauded. The Press benches overflowed, and journalists vied with one another to point out the significance of various statements.

After a few hours in the box, Ahern acknowledged that he had not supplied the tribunal with the information it had sought - to the extent that in March 2006, it had threatened him with a summons to a public sitting of the tribunal.

The tribunal was also anxious to point out that Ahern's earlier, incomplete accounts effectively left a 'hole' in the money trail.

Ahern's spin doctors and aides briefed assiduously while simultaneously complaining that the event had turned into a media circus. His press secretary, Eoghan O Neachtain, complained to RTE that he had counted 19 staff from the national broadcaster in the Press section, not counting technical people. Will ye get a grip, he advised. He was right - it...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!