Bertie Ahern has thrown a stink bomb into Fianna Fáil’s knees-up for its 100th birthday celebrations on Saturday. Classic Bertie.

Out on a byelection canvass in the bailiwick he previously ruled with the Drumcondra Mafia, all that was missing was the former leader’s ould anorak as he fed a voter what he thought she wanted. His exclusionary diatribe against Africans and Muslims has not only hurt its targets but his own party, too, with its implicit message that Fianna Fáil is stuck in the Ireland of a John Hinde postcard.

Of all people, Ahern should know. His stamping ground of Drumcondra, a magnet now for a young, ethnically-diverse, live-and-let-live generation, is a microcosm of contemporary Ireland. How Micheál Martin must wish his predecessor had never come home from that 1994 whip-around dinner in Manchester.

If Charles Haughey were Harry Houdini then Martin must be Lazarus. Not so long ago, he was being disparaged as the first Fianna Fáil leader destined never to become Taoiseach. Now in his second term of office, about to steer the EU presidency, the longevity of his leadership second only to founder Éamon de Valera’s and with Fianna Fáil restored to the Dáil as the country’s biggest party, his powers of survival have proven more miraculous than any of Haughey’s escapes from attempted putsches.

Ireland’s squeezed-out middle has had enough

Penalising a widow for taking her late husband off the insurance is pretty callous

Why is Ireland boycotting the Eurovision but not the Nations League?

Dublin Airport will reach breaking point. It’s time to revisit the case for Baldonnel

Martin was elected leader two months after the........

© The Irish Times