Bertie Ahern - Public Image

Public Image

Ahern's presentational style has been described as Bertiespeak.

"It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct – I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it – that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal."

In 2004, Joe Higgins described Ahern's response to questions as "like playing handball against a hay stack. You hear a dull thud but the ball never comes back to you". Ahern features as one of the main characters portrayed in spoof radio comic strips Gift Grub and Nob Nation. The fortnightly magazine The Phoenix featured "De Diary of a Nortsoide Taoiseach", a satirical column written from Ahern's point of view in a phonetic transliteration of his broad north Dublin accent. Ahern has been satirised in a purported spoof publication Bertie's little book of ethics.

In October 2010, he and some other News of the World columnists appeared in a TV advertisement for the newspaper where they were seen sitting inside kitchen fittings. In his section of the advertisement he was seen sitting inside a kitchen cupboard, with tea and gingernut biscuits. Opposition parties described the skit as "terrible" for the country. Miriam Lord of the The Irish Times described him in this incarnation as "looking and sounding like Drumcondra's answer to Rodney Dangerfield", while Lise Hand of the Irish Independent commented "that he was surrounded by vegetables, ginger nuts and the disintegrated remnants of the dignity of his former office". When asked for an explanation by the Sunday World, Ahern replied that it was "just a bit of craic" and that "you get paid more ".

In September 2011 Ahern said he believed that he would have “done all right” in the presidential election but for the decline in the popularity of Fianna Fáil. Ahern confirmed he considered running in the election. “I still would have done all right. I mean they have done some figures and I would probably sit in around 30 per cent, which you haven’t a hope with as the party is on 20 per cent.” He added that “the party popularity is the thing that snookers it, because if your party isn’t winnable...” Mr Ahern said: “If there was no downturn and if it wasn’t all the hassle of the tribunals and everything else, then you could have had a good run at it.” He predicted that “nobody is going to win it outright – like Mary McAleese had it won on the first count”. Asked about a possible future candidacy in the following presidential election, he said: “Normally what happens in this country, if a president does a good job they stay on, so that’s 14 years, so that ends any chance that I’ll have.” He also rejected suggestions that the Mahon tribunal would reject the evidence he gave on his personal finances. "The only thing that is important to me is the central allegations. And what the tribunal says about the other trash is irrelevant." Michael Martin said the former taoiseach was “out of touch with reality” if he believed he could have won the presidency for Fianna Fáil. Martin also said expenses paid to Mr Ahern in his capacity as a former taoiseach were too high and should be reduced. He was commenting on reports that Mr Ahern had claimed €265,000 for “secretarial services” and €7,500 on mobile phone bills since he stepped down in May 2008. Under the current expenses regime, a former taoiseach may employ two secretarial assistants for up to five years after leaving office and one indefinitely after that.

In September 2011, Ahern was criticised by his party, Fianna Fáil, with a senior party figure saying "Every public utterance he makes digs it deeper every time. From the day he left the Dail, it's been one thing after another. The party members are very pissed off. It's coming up right across the country."

A biography of Ahern was published in 2011, Bertie: Power & Money, by Colm Keena,