Why Bertie Ahern Won't Be Our Next President.

Bertie was the Tabloid Taoiseach.

Imagine, if you will, a politician who can’t tell the truth about where hundreds of thousands of (Irish) pounds in cash came from but insists, with all the earnestness of a child denying he ate the last biscuit, that it was all just “dig-outs” and loans from friends. That politician is Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach of Ireland, and according to the Mahon Tribunal, he gave a masterclass in obfuscation and double-speak. To the media and the Irish public, he displayed the kind of moral bankruptcy that would make a pre-crash banker blush. But some in Fianna Fáil would still back Bertie for the Presidency.

Bertie’s relationship with Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin is complicated.

Bertie Ahern and Michéal Martin have known each other for 40 years and, between the two of them, have ruled over Fianna Fáil for over 27 years. Bertie once replaced Micheál Martin with Michael Woods in the Department of Education. Woods, a politician, was almost impossible to underestimate, and that will tell yo…