Bertie Ahern

Bertie Ahern (2007)

Patrick Bartholomew Ahern [ əˈhɜɹn ], Irish Pádraig Parthalán Ó hEachthairn (born September 12, 1951 in Dublin ), is an Irish economist, economist and politician. From 1997 to May 2008 Ahern was the Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) of Ireland . He belonged to the Fianna Fáil party .

Life

Bertie Ahern studied at University College Dublin and the London School of Economics and Political Science , but without graduating from the LSE.

He has been a Member ( Teachta Dála ) in Dáil Éireann , the Irish Parliament , since 1977 , where he still represents the constituency of Dublin Central . Ahern was a member of the governments of Charles J. Haughey and Albert Reynolds as Defense Minister (1982), Minister of Labor (1987-1991), Minister of Finance (1991-1994) and also for a short time Deputy Prime Minister ( Tánaiste ) . During his tenure as finance minister he was also a member of the board of the International Monetary Fund and from 1991 to 1992 chairman of the European Investment Bank .

In 1994 he became Fianna Fáil's sixth party leader after Albert Reynolds and opposition leader in the Irish Parliament under the government of John Bruton . He was Irish Prime Minister since June 26, 1997 and until 2007 was a two-party coalition, which was also supported by several independent MPs. In the general election on May 24, 2007 Fianna Fáil received 78 of the 166 seats in parliament. This unexpectedly clear victory of his party was attributed to Ahern's great popularity; he is the first Irish Prime Minister since World War II to win three consecutive elections.

In the first half of 2004 he was chairman of the European Council as successor to Silvio Berlusconi ( Italy ). On June 27, 2004, he officially proposed José Manuel Barroso as the new President of the EU Commission.

With effect from May 6, 2008, Ahern resigned from his offices as prime minister and party chairman after having been under heavy political pressure for months due to allegations of accepting private donations. With this step he wanted to maintain the reputation of office and party, but considered himself innocent. He was succeeded in both positions by Brian Cowen .

At the end of December 2010, Ahern announced that he would no longer run for the next election to the Dáil . In 2012 he left the party before he was expelled.

In February 2019 he was appointed chairman of the Bougainville Referendum Commission , which is supposed to prepare the independence referendum in Bougainville 2019 . This commission is paid by Australia, whose government has supported the interests of the mining company Rio Tinto Group in the armed conflict over the Pangunamine and has worked to prevent independence.

Bertie Ahern has two daughters: Georgina, who is married to Nicky Byrne , and the writer Cecelia Ahern .

Web links

Commons : Bertie Ahern  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography in the "Department of the Taoiseach" ( Memento from November 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Report and analysis of the 2007 parliamentary election ( Memento of October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• WhosWho

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Irish Times : “Full text of Taoiseach Ahern's statement” announcement of resignation from April 2, 2008
2. ↑ Ireland's Prime Minister Ahern resigned. ORF , accessed on December 20, 2009 . 
3. ^ The Irish Times: Bertie Ahern to step down from Dáil , December 31, 2010
4. ↑ 2019-02-27
5. ↑ Bougainville Referendum Commission receives K2.4 million 2019-02-11
6. ↑ Lasslett, Kristian; State Crime by Proxy: Australia and the Bougainville Conflict; British Journal of Criminology, Volume 52, Issue 4, 1 July 2012, Pages 705–723, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azs012