A group dedicated to preserving Irish apple varieties is hopeful Mr Ahern will be returned as Taoiseach after the election when they plan to present him with a newly grafted piece of the rare apple tree, Aherne Beauty.
The apple has some familiar characteristics, described as "a fine exhibition sort" by Mr William Baylor Hartland in his 1907 catalogue of fruit trees. There the similarities end. He also says it is "a very large and handsome deep blood red fruit of pearmain shape".
The apple has not been eaten for a number of decades and had been on the wanted list of the Irish Seed Saver Association, a group based at Capparoe, outside Scariff, Co Clare. It propagates native vegetables and fruit species in danger of being lost as the genetic base of commercial varieties decreases.
Mr Doug Dudley, apple tree manager at the organic farm, said Aherne Beauty was located at the Armagh Orchards Trust by Mr Peadar McNiece.
When the FÁS supervisor at the farm, Ms Bridget Carlin, saw Mr Ahern at the Lakeside Hotel in Killaloe recently, she seized the opportunity and took an order for the tree.
"I said that there was a very rare tree called the Aherne Beauty and would it not be nice to give him a graft of it. I also said that we were in desperate need of secure funding. He assured us of his support for the work and the organisation."
The farm now has 98 out of 150 apple varieties in the process of being grafted which will form the basis of an orchard. The association also places trees with sponsors and has received 170 orders placed by people around the country keen to re-sample the lost taste of their childhood.
"People are fed up with apples like Braeburn or whatever these things are in the supermarkets. There is no variation to them," Mr Dudley said.
The group is now diversifying into pears, plums, damsons and cherries.
The association is also sponsored by the Department of Agriculture to grow rare potato varieties. Garden manager Mr Frank Bouchier said there were 38 varieties on offer.
"With their membership, people can choose any five of those varieties. It is a way of getting these old varieties that are unavailable commercially out into circulation again," he said.
He is also seeking other root vegetable varieties, such as carrots, parsnips and beetroot, as part of a research project.