Bertie Ahern recalls ‘rough period’ as chief whip during GUBU affair

Marshalling votes for Charles Haughey’s scandal-prone minority government in 1982 put the then chief whip Bertie Ahern “to the pin of my collar”, the former taoiseach said on Wednesday.

Mr Ahern was speaking after the launch of The Murderer and the Taoiseach by Irish Times Political Correspondent Harry McGee in Dublin. The book tells the story of the “GUBU” affair.

GUBU was the acronym coined by the late Conor Cruise O’Brien from Mr Haughey’s own words – grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented – to describe the series of events of 30 years ago: the arrest of a murderer, Malcolm Macarthur, in the Dalkey apartment of his attorney general, Patrick Connolly.

[ How murderer Malcolm Macarthur spends his days: library visits, bookshop browsing, living a quiet life ]

Speaking about the political turmoil at the time, Mr Ahern said: “I was chief whip that year and it was a minority government so it was very difficult.

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“We were either a vote up or a vote down in every single vote. I suppose that’s why the government only lasted nine months. It was a real struggle and the two byelections only added to the drama.

“It was great experience for me because, when you’re young, to get the chance to be chief whip in a minority government meant you learned everything. It was a rough period. It put my to the pin of me collar.

“At that stage, it was a case of ‘would the government fall?’ with every vote, but you learned on your feet and you just got on with it. I wouldn’t like to be doing it today.”

The Murderer and the Taoiseach by Harry McGee is published by Hachette Ireland