Bertie's friends: the men who lent him the money

Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent, looks at the men who loaned almost €50,000 to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Padraic O'Connor

Padraic O'Connor, formerly of NCB Stockbrokers, sometimes provided advice to Bertie Ahern when he was minister for finance in the early 1990s.

The two men worked together during the currency crisis, when Mr Ahern eventually devalued the punt.

He was managing director of NCB from February 1991 to March 1999. He was also a director of the Irish Stock Exchange from May 1995 to March 1999. He formerly worked as an economist in the Central Bank and the Department of Finance.

Mr O'Connor was appointed to the board of Eircom in March 2004. He was non-executive chairman of ACC from 1999 to 2002, when it was being prepared for privatisation.

Jim Nugent

Jim Nugent has been chairman of educational and corporate training group Woodgrange Technology for more than 15 years.

He is a former director of the Central Bank of Ireland and of Cert, the State tourism training agency. He has also been personnel director with Cadbury Schweppes, senior specialist at the Irish Management Institute, and an independent consultant on acquisitions and mergers for clients in the transport sector.

Mr Nugent was the chairman of Cert for three terms, during which he became the longest-serving chairman of a semi-state body. He resigned in 1997.

Des Richardson

Des Richardson is a businessman and fundraiser who has been a key associate of the Taoiseach since the 1970s. When he was appointed party treasurer in 1993, Mr Ahern asked Mr Richardson to take on the new position of full-time fundraiser for Fianna Fáil. By the time of the 1997 general election Mr Richardson had cleared the party's £3.5 million debt.

Mr Richardson is credited with the success of the annual Fianna Fáil fundraising event at the Galway Races as well as the annual dinner to raise funds for Mr Ahern's constituency operation.

He is also a member of the trust that bought and owns Mr Ahern's constituency office, St Luke's, in Drumcondra, where Mr Ahern is also understood to have lived for a time in the early 1990s. He was at one stage executive chairman of Marlborough International plc, the recruitment firm run by businessman David McKenna which collapsed in 2002. Mr Richardson is now involved in a technology venture with Mr McKenna. He was director of Fás International Consulting from November 1991 to November 1994, and a director of Aer Lingus from November 1997 to November 2002.

David McKenna

David McKenna is a former plumber who during the 1990s grew the recruitment firm Marlborough International to the extent that he became a very wealthy man.

He bought the firm in 1992 for £7,500 and floated it on the stock exchange in 1997. At one stage his shareholding in the company was worth something in the region of €70 million. The sale of some of his shareholding netted him several million pounds. In 2002 the company collapsed spectacularly with huge debts.

Some time ago it emerged that Mr McKenna had, when his company was still successful, on occasion given Mr Ahern lifts in his private jet to the UK to watch Manchester United fixtures.

Mr McKenna has regularly attended fundraising events for Fianna Fáil and Mr Ahern, often events organised by Des Richardson. He was on the board of Enterprise Ireland from March 1999 to March 2001.

Fintan Gunne

The late Fintan Gunne was an auctioneer and businessman who built the successful Gunne estate agency business.

Mr Gunne was a supporter of Fianna Fáil who attended the party's annual fundraising tent at the Galway Races. He died in 1997 and his funeral was attended by senior figures from political, business and financial worlds, including Mr Ahern.

Mr Gunne controlled one of the largest estate agencies in the State, with 11 branches and a staff of 160. He also operated three livestock sales marts. Mr Gunne, originally from Dundalk, started as a cattle salesman in his father's livestock mart in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, after leaving school at the age of 17. He took over the business when his father, Patrick, died at the age of 52.

He acted for a large number of business people including Margaret Heffernan, Harry Dobson and Pino Harris. He sold Carysfort College to the State in 1990, acting for Mr Harris who had bought it several months earlier.

In 2005 the family sold its shareholdings in the commercial company Mr Gunne had built up, CB Richard Ellis Gunne, for approximately €25 million.

Earlier this year the Gunne family sold the residential estate agency business for a price believed to be in the region of €7 million.

Michael Collins

The Taoiseach also mentioned Mick Collins as one of his donors. No one spoken to last night had any information on who he might be.

Charlie Chawke

Charlie Chawke is a millionaire publican who owns a large share in Sunderland football club.

In 2003 he had a leg amputated after he was shot during a robbery outside his Goat Inn pub in Dublin.

The robber shot Mr Chawke in the leg as he lay on the ground, and then reached into Mr Chawke's car and took a bag with €48,652 in takings from the pub.

However, as the gunman and his accomplice made their escape, they were spotted and pursued by gardaí. One of the attackers was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment earlier this year. Another man also apprehended by gardaí at the time has yet to be tried.

As well as the Goat Inn, Mr Chawke also owns the Old Orchard Inn in Rathfarnham, Dublin, the Dropping Well in Milltown, Dublin, and The Bank in Dame Street, Dublin.

Paddy Reilly

Paddy Reilly is a friend of the Taoiseach of more than 30 years and a member of Mr Ahern's constituency team. He is a plasterer by trade who is now a substantial landlord.

Mr Reilly owns a number of residential and commercial properties around the inner city area of Dublin. He lives in Drumcondra.

Joe Burke

Joe Burke is a builder and a very close and long-time associate of the Taoiseach. He was appointed to the position of chairman of the Dublin Port Company in April 2002, just before the general election of that year, and remains in the position. The appointment was made by the then Minister for the Marine, Frank Fahey.

It emerged afterwards that Mr Burke had requested the position from the Taoiseach, and that the then Tánaiste, Mary Harney, was not informed until after the event.

Mr Burke is a director of East Link Ltd, having joined the board in September 2004 and having previously been on the board between 1994 and 1998.

Between 1985 and 1991, Mr Burke was vice-chairman of the city council's planning committee and also a member of the old Dublin Port and Docks Board.

His own firm, J & H Burke & Son Builders Ltd, specialises in pub refurbishments.

In 1989, after developer Tom Gilmartin complained to Mr Ahern (who was then minister for labour) about his difficulties in progressing plans for a huge motorway shopping centre at Quarryvale, west Dublin, it was Mr Burke who was sent to meet Mr Gilmartin.

Mr Burke became embroiled in the Sheedy controversy in 1999 when it emerged he had employed the jailed architect Philip Sheedy, and visited him in Shelton Abbey after his conviction and sentencing for dangerous driving causing the death of Anne Ryan.

Mr Ahern told the Dáil that Mr Burke had made representations to him about securing Mr Sheedy's early release. He described the former councillor as a "good personal friend . . . When I meet him we usually talk about sport, sometimes about building and politics".

Dermot Carew

Dermot Carew is owner of the Beaumont House pub in north Dublin and is a long-time associate of the Taoiseach. Mr Carew is understood to be member of the social group which regularly enjoys pints with Mr Ahern in Fagan's pub in Drumcondra.

Mr Ahern also frequents Mr Carew's pub.

Barry English

Barry English is a businessman from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, who is a long-term friend of the Taoiseach.

He runs a business that specialises in plumbing and heating.

Paddy Reilly

The second Paddy Reilly mentioned by the Taoiseach yesterday is a former friend of Mr Ahern's who is now deceased.