Update: Bertie Ahern is home just in time for the speech it seems – expected to arrive in City West 45 minutes before Cowen took to the podium.

I had today in my diary as one of the days Bertie Ahern, our Iar Thaoiseach, was due to be away on a Bertie Earner.  I previously posted on this event at Molloy College in New York which had to be cancelled following his accident resulting in a broken leg. This weeks Irish Echo reports that all systems are go for the event which begins today at 9.45 am New York time.

Ahern is the main speaker at the Long Island university’s Joseph F. Maher Leadership Forum, an event that will serve as the curtain raiser for the new Irish Studies Institute at Molloy, which has its campus in Rockville Centre. …His speech will be entitled “Peace Through Inclusive Dialogue: Ireland’s Journey.”

Miriam Lord in  last Saturday’s Irish Times  covered other Bertie earners including a recent trip to  Central America – Honduras specifically – where Senor Bertie delivered a keynote lecture to the Honduran National Business Council. ‘It was entitled ‘ The Celtic Tiger: The Irish Model of Development.’ Miriam of course notes the farce that is talking about the Tiger when its a mangey cat! No sign of that speech on the website of the Office of Bertie Ahern

Unless Bertie is flying home tonight and travelling straight out to City West to the 72nd Ard Fheis in the morning it looks like he’ll miss the ‘lavish’ praise to be heaped upon him. I’ll keep my eye out just in case!

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