Programme 1

Monday 03 November 2008

Unfortunately, this programme has now expired. Please note that each episode is only available for 21 days after transmission.

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.