AHERN, BERTIE

born September 12, 1951, Dublin, Ire. in full Bartholemew Ahern prime minister (taoiseach) of Ireland from June 1997. Ahern was educated at St. Aidan's Christian Brothers secondary school, Rathmines College of Commerce, University College in Dublin, and the London School of Economics, obtaining degrees in taxation, business administration, and computer science. He was elected to the Dil (lower house of Parliament) in 1977 as a member of the Fianna Fil party for a constituency in central Dublin and to the Dublin City Council in 1979, later becoming lord mayor (198687). An assistant whip (198081) in the first government of Prime Minister Charles Haughey, he became a junior minister in Haughey's second government (1982) and minister for labour in his third (198789) and fourth (198991) governments. Ahern's success in establishing general economic agreements with employers, unions, and farmers in 1987 and 1990 and his role in constructing the first Fianna Fil coalition government (with the Progressive Democrats) in 1989 confirmed his reputation as a skillful negotiator. He was made minister for finance in 1991. In the contest to choose Haughey's successor, Ahern withdrew in favour of Albert Reynolds, and he remained minister for finance in each of Reynolds's two governments (FebruaryNovember 1992 and 199394). In November 1994, following the fall of the Fianna FilLabour Party government, Reynolds resigned, and Ahern was elected party leader. He was set to become taoiseach in a new coalition with the Labour Party, but at the eleventh hour Labour opted to join a government with Fine Gael and Democratic Left. Ahern formed a Fianna FilProgressive Democrat minority government following elections in 1997. Michael Marsh