FROM THE ARCHIVES:Bertie Ahern, then minister for Labour, described his typical weekend in this feature (as told to Kathy Sheridan).
NOBODY REALLY believes what us guys – or girls for that matter – do, but I’ll tell you the truth anyway and you can write the bits you believe . . .
On Friday evening, what I normally do is go over to my staff in Drumcondra, meet the councillors and a few of my key people, and have a jar.
For a politician, usually the safest bar to buy a drink in is the one you’re known best in, that’s where you’ll be left alone. The ones you’re not known in, you’ll have people coming over to you and saying “Sorry for interrupting you – but . . .”
I’ve a constituency office over Fagan’s pub in Drumcondra where we always go for the quiet jar.
Then I try to hit fairly quickly whatever is on around the constituency. In an area like Dublin Central with 100,000 people, there are three or four functions every Friday night – a parish social, or a Fianna Fáil one or a club like the Prison Officers’, or CY Fairview, Sylvester’s Football Club, or my own club in Drumcondra
That’s Friday night if I’m in Dublin. Because I’m vice-president of the party, I also do a lot of country functions. For the last three Fridays I’ve been in Enniscrone, Killorglin, Athlone and there was the Ard-fheis two weeks ago.
If it’s not too far away – say within a two-and-a-half-hour drive – I’ll come back that night, but the one thing I will not miss is my clinics on Saturday. I’ve started every Saturday for the last 11 years in Tolka House in Glasnevin at 10.30.
I move from Tolka House down to 72 Amiens Street and I’m there till around 4 o’clock. We normally see around 50 people altogether.
If the weather is any way reasonable then, we do what we call “walkarounds” for two hours. We’ll pick a different area every Saturday and just literally knock on doors, meeting and talking to the people.
You’re on the ground and meeting people and you also get the feel of things.
We actually tend not to go out that much on a Saturday because if you’re out every night, the novelty is staying in. I don’t like pubs on a Saturday night anyway – they’re too bloody packed.
My Sundays normally are based around whether the Dublin footballers are playing.
If they are, that’s my first priority.
It’s one thing that excites me; I go through work all week, but I can get quite hyped up over Dublin winning or losing.
I never go to the stand in Croke Park – always to the terrace and to the same place so people nearly always know you and you don’t get hassled.
Under the taoiseach , there are Cabinet meetings regularly on a Sunday morning and they could last all day, but normally I’d try to go into the constituency to meet some of the guys who do all my organisational work, planning tactics or “walkarounds”.