John Bruton’s work on Northern Ireland ‘has been forgotten’, says ex-minister, as author suggests Ahern should be ‘a little bit more generous’ to others
Bertie Ahern in 1997 with John Bruton. Mr Ahern succeeded Mr Bruton as taoiseach in June that year. Photograph: David Sleator, Labour and Democratic Left has never been given due credit for the role it played in laying the ground for the Belfast Agreement, former minister for justice
Broadcaster and author Shane Kenny speaking at the launch of his book Under The Rainbow in Hodges Figgis in Dublin “It was a great honour for John to become taoiseach,” the former Fine Gael TD told the book launch at Hodges Figgis in Dublin, which was attended by Mr Bruton’s widow, Finola, and his brother and fellow cabinet member, Richard.
He wrote 40,000 words of the book in the year after the rainbow coalition left office, but he had been provoked to finish it because of the way that Mr Bruton’s role had been ignored in the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Belfast Agreement. Mr Bruton and Mr Blair laid the foundations for the second IRA ceasefire in July 1997 and Sinn Féin’s entry into talks six weeks later.
“He turned to Alastair Campbell and said that Bertie Ahern was just trotting out, endlessly, the Sinn Féin line. And he told him that he feared that the peace process had taken a setback. That’s there in Alastair Campbell’s Irish Diaries.”
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