Bertie tries to reveal the man behind the mask

He may have portrayed himself as a man of the people, but few can claim to really know what goes on in the brain behind former taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s public persona.

It is this mystery that  new four-part biography series Bertie, which begins on RTÉ next week, tries to solve. 

Programme makers Mint Productions say  Bertieis an attempt to reveal what drove Mr Ahern, once famously described by former mentor Charles Haughey as the "most devious and the most cunning of them all", during his three decades in the public eye.

While it features contributions from over 70 people, including family members and politicians from across the spectrum, central to the programme is a lengthy interview with Mr Ahern, conducted just weeks after he resigned last May as taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.

The opening episode, to be broadcast on Monday week, traces Mr Ahern's life up to the election of 1989, detailing his years as an accounts clerk in the Mater Hospital and his fledgling political career, during which he won a Dáil seat in 1977 at the first attempt.

In the programme, insiders - including members of the so-called "Drumcondra Mafia" - outline how he built a formidable constituency machine during this period and forged a close bond with Haughey while serving as Fianna Fail chief whip.

Bertiereveals how, while his political career was soaring, Mr Ahern's personal life was unravelling. By the time he was appointed Minister of Labour in 1987 - his first Cabinet position - his marriage had broken down.
His wife Miriam, in a candid interview, describes this period as a "very difficult time."

The documentary shows how Mr Ahern’s St Luke’s constituency office doubled as his home following his separation from his wife.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan explains how Mr Ahern sacrificed his private life for his career. "He is a man who is utterly consumed by politics, and by the exercise of power and he has devoted much of his life to that exercise," he says.

Bertiefeatures insights from former Cabinet colleagues Charlie McCreevy, Mary Harney and Mary O'Rourke and a number of journalists, including Irish Timespublic affairs correspondent Colm Keena.

Mr Ahern's daughters Cecelia and Georgina and a number of Drumcondra associates are also interviewed.

Commissioning editor for RTÉ Factual Kevin Dawson said the series is "an honest and independent political biography of scope and insight, and an effective primer in recent Irish political affairs and in the nature of power and politics."

Mint Productions, which is responsible for the Haugheyseries broadcast by RTE in 2005 and 2004's Fine Gael: A Family at War, was founded by Prime Timepresenter Miriam O'Callaghan and producer Steve Carson.