Ahern fractured leg falling down stairs

FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has revealed that he had fractured his leg by falling down the landing stairs at his home on Tuesday morning.

"I went down like a tonne of bricks, a dead weight," he said last night.

Mr Ahern attended an event at Trinity College, Dublin, on crutches, with a grey sock stretched over his bandaged right foot.

Before participating in the Historical Society's debate on the motion that "this house would reunite Ireland", he amused students by telling them he "had a row with the stairs".

Mr Ahern said a "rather attractive physio" had tried to teach him how to use his crutches, but he admitted to finding stairs difficult.

He had played football for 24 years and managed to avoid breaking his leg, but maybe at the age of 57 he should not be trying to jump steps.

The former taoiseach also told students that another event had "curtailed my activities tonight, one I'd no part in whatsoever because I wasn't consulted on the Budget".

Afterwards Mr Ahern clarified that he was speaking in jest, adding that nobody who was not in the Cabinet was consulted. "That's a matter for Government."

Mr Ahern was presented with The Hist's gold medal for "outstanding contribution to public discourse". One student joked that the medal should be presented to the Italian national football team. "May they all break their legs," he proclaimed.