HE MAY not have attracted quite as large a crowd as ageing rocker Ozzy Osbourne for his book signing in Dublin at the weekend, but Bertie Ahern still drew the faithful.
More than 400 people queued in Eason on O'Connell Street to have the former taoiseach sign their copies of his book, entitled Bertie Ahern: The Autobiography.
He sat on a wooden plinth behind a small table and in front of an airbrushed photograph of himself.
Metal barriers, separated him from shoppers, many of whom gathered to indulge in that most Irish of pastimes, gawking.
A lone woman shouted “you should be ashamed of yourself!” before darting out the side door. But for the most part the crowd were good-humoured and indulgent.
Some of those who queued for his autograph had travelled up to the capital especially for the occasion.
One woman after another whispered in his ear as he signed their copies, put an arm around him and smiled for the camera as their husbands took the photograph.
Others, who did not have time to queue for a signing stood beside a card board photo of Bertie on a table of books and had their photograph taken with that instead.
Gráinne O’Leary from Howth, in North Dublin, said she was Bertie’s biggest fan. The 17 year old queued with her grandfather to tell him so. “He’s a nice man, a people person,” she said, clutching her edition in which he had written
Marie Padden, also from Dublin, said: “I have a kind of passion for those sort of people that have a funny streak in them . . . of course, they’re all a shower of crooks, him included.”
Maurice Walsh had travelled from Waterford for the event and described himself as a life long member of Fianna Fáil. “Bertie was our greatest ever leader,” he said.
Robert Butler from Wicklow said Ahern had achieved a lot. “Even with the downturn, we’re still a lot better off than we were 30 years ago.”
Niamh Horgan from Cork bought two copies as presents and got them signed. She appreciated that the former taoiseach had spoken to her.
“We were here earlier for Ozzy Osbourne; he wasn’t even looking at people,” she said.
However, others were more enamoured of the 60-year-old former Black Sabbath front man, turned reality TV star, and now author.
Ozzy fans queued all night and by the appointed hour of 11am, all 350 tickets for the signing of I Am Ozzy were gone.
Osbourne came down an escalator to the doom-laden sound of the song Black Sabbathand the crowd erupted with chants of "Ozzy, Ozzy".
Top of the queue was Bernard Walsh (50), one of the few there who remembered Black Sabbath in their original incarnation. He brought his young son, also called Bernard (12).
“I love him. I followed him since the early days of Black Sabbath. I have about 240 Black Sabbath CDs, most of them bootlegs,” he said.
Eoin Lawlor (32) from Celbridge, Co Kildare, queued from 5.30am. “Who’d win in a fight between Ozzy and God? Trick question. Ozzy is God”.
Later that afternoon Osbourne attracted 600 fans to his signing at Hughes and Hughes on St Stephen’s Green.