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Irish elections: key players
Topic Started: May 24 2007, 11:27 AM (118 Views)
JoanneVIP
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THE BOSS
Irish elections: key players


Profiles of the main party leaders

Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent
Thursday May 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Bertie Ahern

The leader of Fianna Fáil, Bertie Ahern came to power 10 years ago in the same summer as Tony Blair. Their close partnership over the Northern Ireland peace process enhanced their reputations as statesmen. Bertie - as he is known - has always enjoyed high personal popularity ratings. Admired as a man of the people, he drinks in his local bar in Drumcondra, north Dublin.

He has been nicknamed the Teflon Taoiseach - because criticism of him rarely sticks. Last December an investigative tribunal confirmed that in earlier years he signed blank cheques later used by Charlie Haughey, then taoiseach, for his personal benefit. Mr Haughey once praised him as "the most skilful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all".


Mr Ahern, whose parents were republicans from County Cork, has recalled IRA guns being hidden around the family home when he was a child. He has been Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Republic's finance minister.
He is divorced. One daughter is married to the Westlife singer Nicky Byrne, the other is a best-selling romance novelist. At the start of this election he faced fresh scrutiny over payments made by a businessman to his former partner in the 1990s.

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Nicky's Angel
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Sara
Thanks for posting Jo
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JoanneVIP
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THE BOSS
Irish Vote could prove close

A closely run contest is expected in the Irish general election as more than 3 million voters go to the polls.

Outgoing Taoiseach Bertie Aherne is aiming for a third term in office, while the opposition Alliance for change alternative hopes to end a decade of Fianna Fail rule.

Opinion polls on the eve of the elction indicated a slim lead for the governing coalition - not the clear support Mr Aherne was hoping for.

His Fianna Fail party had a disastrous start to its election campaign when allegations about his personal finances filled the media.

The outgoing coalition of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats looks unlikely on the evidence of opinion polls to win sufficient seats to form government

Fianna Fail may have to team up once again with Labour pr - for the first time in the party's history - with the Greens

Typed by Jo/Sky news
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jlovenicky
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Jacqueline
Thanks Jo ;)
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JoanneVIP
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THE BOSS
its ok.. good luck to him, if he doesnt get in as prime minister then mm strange, and i wonder if anyone got pics of Gina or Nicky voting
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jlovenicky
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Jacqueline
Yes, there was a article about him too in the dutch papers but it was the same as your post.. A little bit different and that he loves his job etc.
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uptowngirl
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thanks so much for posting hunnie
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Louise4Shane
Louise
Thank you.
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MrsMaryByrne
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Mary
thanks for posting
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ShouneesFilan
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Westlife Angel
thnx for posting
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