Bertie Ahern (Napoleon's World)

Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is a retired Irish politician who served as President of Ireland from 1997 to 2003. Ahern was a member of the Labour Party and had previously served as Foreign Minister and Defense Minister during the Presidency of his immediate successor, John Bruton (1991-1997), and prior to that had served in the Dail since winning a by-election in 1981.

Ahern was initially highly popular due a strong economy and the successful Dublin Olympics in 1998, and he enjoyed substantial Labour majorities in the Dail concurrently to his Presidency. Domestically he pursued a variety of social spending priorities and invested billions in transportation infrastructure. On the foreign policy sphere, he signed the Multilateral Arms Reduction Treaty that he had been instrumental in negotiating as a Cabinet minister and began negotiating the British Free Trade Zone as well as signing several trade agreements with Latin American countries. His popularity declined towards the end of his first six-year term, however, as the Irish economy was affected by the 2002-03 recession and numerous scandals plagued the Labour government. Ahern was narrowly defeated by Mary McAleese, a Conservative, in the 2003 Presidential election. Out of office, Ahern was plagued by a variety of criminal probes, all of which he was eventually cleared in.