The inverse career of Martin Mansergh, Special Adviser To The Taoiseach On Everything, moves another cog in reverse today when Mr Ahern visits him at his election headquarters in Thurles.
Most politicians start off at the bottom and gradually work their way through the cumann, town council, county council, the Dáil, a minister's office or two and finally, Roinn an Taoisigh.
Martin Mansergh, like Merlin, is doing it backwards. He began his career in the Taioseach's office (in its Nissen hut days) and now, after two decades of eminence, he has his eyes and his heart set on a seat in Tipperary South.
A place on Thurles Town Council is probably the next appetising prospect shimmering on his horizon. Possibly, he hopes then for a job as church-warden. And after that, who knows: the whole oyster is his world.
Whatever the perversity of living his life backwards - he is celebrating his 21st birthday soon - he is competing for a constituency where the unwanted are also the unloved. A good few people found that out the hard way. Within the bounds of the present constituency, the Anglo-Irish War began at Solohead Beg.
The last three captured British officers to be killed by the IRA before the Truce in 1921 were shot near Fethard. And the Civil War ended when Liam Lynch was killed in the Knockmealdowns to the south.
It was during this tragic period in Irish history that the Mansergh dog was shot by a Black and Tan, thereby permanently unstitching Mansergh loyalty to the crown. Or so it is said.
It is all a long time ago, and Martin Mansergh is anxious to point to more recent history, and his achievements as a constituency TD even before he was a constituency TD (remember, the man lives backwards).
These include the construction of the Excel theatre complex and the funding of the Abbey School.
Yet it would have been as unthinkable for a Mansergh to have stood for Fianna Fáil in this area not long ago, regardless of the tragedy of the Mansergh mutt, with all its lingering, earth-shaking implications. But these are changing times.
Graves of British soldiers who were killed in the War of Independence are today neatly minded in the Church of Ireland churchyard; though a derelict Pat Grace's Famous Fried Chicken outlet is a reminder of the bad old days we have - please God - left behind.
Of course, Martin Mansergh is back to the land of his ancestors. One of them, Richard Mansergh, buried one wife, Jane Rosette, in 1830 and a second, Christina, alongside her in 1854, and left them to their own devices for 21 interesting years before his presence was finally required to bring peace to the family tomb.
Martin Mansergh prides himself on his role in the other peace process. Some may think Richard had the harder task: after all, it was the death of him.