Irish leader to quit amid graft inquiry

Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister who alternately wheedled and prodded Northern Ireland into a historic peace agreement, announced Wednesday that he was resigning in the midst of a long-running investigation of his financial ties to businesspeople.

Flanked by his ministers, the 56-year-old politician said in an emotional statement that he would step down May 6. The date comes shortly after a planned address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress and the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, which helped end decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.

“I want everyone to understand one truth above all else: Never, in all the time I have served in public life, have I put personal interest ahead of the public good,” said Ahern, who, having spent nearly 11 years in office, is one of Europe’s longest-serving prime ministers. “I have never received a corrupt payment, and I have never done anything to dishonor any office I have held.”

Ahern was elected to a record third term last year at the head of a smoothly functioning coalition government and had presided over an economic boom that helped transform Ireland from an impoverished rural economy to a major exporter in Europe.

The prime minister had indicated he would probably step down before the end of his mandate, which could have been as far off as 2012, but the drumbeat of inquiry into payments he received in the 1990s has grown feverish.

Political analysts said Ahern and his allies feared the investigation could affect the outcome of Ireland’s upcoming referendum on a new European Union treaty, and possibly local council and European Parliament elections next year.

“There is a growing fear, looking at the political mood, that people would take advantage of the referendum to register a vote against the government,” said Timothy Patrick Coogan, an Irish historian and former newspaper editor. “The country’s done very well with the EU; it would be the reversal of the engine of a speeding car.

“He always said he was going to go, but at the time of his own choosing,” Coogan said. “He thought he was going to still be standing when the fertilizer hit the fan.”

Ahern has long been dubbed the “Teflon Taoiseach,” a reference to the Gaelic term for prime minister and his ability to avoid the scandals that beset some of his predecessors. However, his finances dating from before he took the top office in 1997 have come to dominate Irish politics over the last 18 months.

He was nearly unseated in 2006, when a leak from the investigatory tribunal revealed he had accepted thousands of pounds from wealthy businesspeople in 1993 and 1994 while serving as finance minister.

Yet Ahern survived in power, largely because of a tearful interview he gave on national television, during which he said he needed the money to cover costs after his legal separation from his wife.

The tribunal nonetheless continued its inquiry, examining transactions totaling more than $1.39 million, according to the Irish Times.

In testimony last month, Ahern’s former constituency secretary broke down in tears and admitted she had deposited British pounds into Ahern’s account on his behalf, contradicting his denial.

Ahern partnered with then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair in bringing Northern Ireland’s fractured parties toward a power-sharing deal in 1998. Pro-British unionists credited him with winning their confidence by shunning traditional republican rhetoric in favor of a pragmatic, workable relationship between Northern Ireland and the independent Irish Republic over which he presides.

“He is a very unassuming man, and unpretentious in circumstances where it’s necessary to be very, very patient,” said John Coakley, former director of the Institute of British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin.

On Wednesday, Blair called Ahern “a remarkable man” who will be remembered for his “crucial role” in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and presiding over “a sustained period of economic and social advance” in his country.

Sinn Fein, the republican movement that has seats in both the Northern Ireland government and the Irish Parliament, welcomed Ahern’s decision to step down, though it credited the prime minister’s role in the peace process.

Ahern also will step down from the leadership of the Fianna Fail party. His departure is not expected to impair the coalition government his party shares with the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats. The deputy prime minister, Brian Cowen, is considered the most likely successor as prime minister.

Ahern was able to unite the country behind his pro-business agenda by reaching out to labor unions, Coogan said.

“He had a joyous mixture that you get in Irish politicians of being both an advocate of the underdog, and a capitalist. He had that knack of being a common man,” he said.

“He was,” Coogan said, “one of the shrewdest politicians in Europe, no doubt about it.”

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kim.murphy@latimes.com

Special correspondent Mahoney reported from Dublin and Times staff writer Murphy from London.