Programme 3

Monday 17 November 2008

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

In December 1994 Bertie Ahern had confidently been expected to become Taoiseach. He was a heartbeat away from a vote to confirm him in the Dáil. But in the middle of the night, Ahern took a call from Labour leader Dick Spring informing him that a coalition deal was off.

Though few outside Bertie Ahern's inner circle knew it, the days before Spring's call had also been momentous ones. At the weekend, a man called Michael Wall had apparently arrived in St Luke's with a briefcase full of cash. Ahern had passed the cash onto Celia Larkin, who lodged it to an AIB account.

In episode 3, Bertie Ahern is challenged on some of the theories that have been considered in relation to Wall's apparent willingness to purchase a house for Celia and Bertie to live in.

A decade later, the Mahon Tribunal would note that this lodgement equates to exactly $45,000 using a contemporary exchange rate, and that the branch does not have a record of a large amount of sterling being lodged on that day.

Bertie Ahern made it through the general election of 1997 with a tiny increase in Fianna Fáil's share of the vote but crucially able to attract transfers from a wide range of voters.

The first year of Bertie Ahern's period in office, though, is likely to be remembered for one gruelling week of negotiations in Stormont. What became known as the Good Friday Agreement was on the point of collapse when the two Prime Ministers joined the talks. Ahern was also dealing with the death of his mother in Dublin.

A final all night session did see tentative agreement reached between the parties, one hurriedly confirmed by Blair and Ahern before anyone could change their minds. It was a remarkable testament to Bertie Ahern's negotiating skills, an enduring legacy achieved at the start of his premiership.