So the other day I was wondering about the Bertie Earners and speculating if they would ever go away.

Well they haven’t.   He’s in Nigeria, spotted by Clement Esebamen and others and he’s making a plenary speech.

He’s there addressing the Ogun State Investors Forum.  The Honourable Bertie Ahern they tell us

  …served as prime minister of Ireland from 1997-2008. At the age of 45, he was the youngest prime minister ever elected to the office.

He paved the way for tremendous economic prosperity, peace and global political prominence.

During his tenure as prime minister, Ahern transformed Ireland from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the wealthiest.
A period of economic prosperity called the “Celtic Tiger” led to an unprecedented rise in disposable income. Unemployment fell from 18 percent to 3.5 percent, and the average industrial wage grew to one of the highest in Europe. Public debt was dramatically reduced while Ahern oversaw large investments in the modernization of cities and infrastructure.

and so on. 

Update: Picture of Bertie Ahern in Nigeria today can be seen here. 

I’ve had a ‘Bertie haunts me’ type of day.  Earlier in the day I was in the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Clondalkin.  This was what greeted me at lunchtime.

A Graham Knuttel original.  (They have conference rooms named after all the Taoisigh (except Cowen) in the hotel – I spent the day in the De Valera Suite).