A year after Northern Ireland’s politicians set aside decades of hatred to share power in a regional government, Ahern spent his last day in office at the Battle of the Boyne site where Europe’s Protestant and Catholic kings clashed in 1690.
Ahern, a Catholic whose Fianna Fail party favours a united Ireland, was joined at the opening of a new visitor centre by Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley — a firebrand Protestant cleric devoted to preserving British sovereignty in Northern Ireland.
Ahern quit just a year after winning a historic third successive term to fight accusations of corruption that risk tarnishing his legacy of helping deliver the peace.
Until last year Paisley refused to even shake his hand but on Tuesday the two men grinned as they wielded 17th century swords to cut the ribbon.
In a sign of how much has changed since Ahern came to power in 1997, Paisley swapped his intransigent former battle cry of “no surrender” for one of no turning back.
“To the bad old days there can be no turning back. The killing times must be ended forever. This must be the ending of all atrocities and the building of the ways of peace.”
Ahern, along with British counterpart Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton, was one of the key brokers of a 1998 peace deal to end three decades of bombings and shootings that killed more than 3,600 people.
Their diplomatic efforts were crowned before Blair stepped down in 2007 when pro-British Protestants and Irish nationalist Catholics agreed to work together running the province.
With Ahern due to tender his resignation to Irish President Mary McAleese later on Tuesday and Paisley set to step down in May, the day’s events also marked the end of an era.
“You and I will shortly be embarking on new beginnings in our own lives,” Ahern told Paisley. “Let us understand each other and our shared history. Let us work together for all of the people of this island. Let us be reconciled with each other.Let us be friends. Let us live in peace.”
Irish Finance Minister Brian Cowen is almost certain to replace Ahern when parliament votes in a new prime minister on Wednesday and the priority will be tackling the slowing economy.
Since the early 1990s when Ahern was finance minister, Ireland has been transformed from one of Europe’s poorest nations into one of its wealthiest. Now Cowen faces falling house prices, the global credit crunch and jittery consumers.—Reuters