THE GUESTS at Bertie Ahern’s 60th birthday party at Croke Park were photographed as they arrived, but there was no early sign of the main man – the rumour was that he had slipped inside without being spotted.
The lights were on in the Hogan Stand and there were a few shining lights among the guests too. It was family first, with the former taoiseach’s daughters, the author Cecilia Ahern and her sister Georgina, among the first to arrive along with his son-in-law Nicky Byrne of Westlife fame.
His former wife Miriam was also among the early arrivals with her partner Terry McCoy, who said he was “looking for a good dinner”. Mr Ahern’s brothers Noel and Maurice were also among the guests.
The political guest list included former ministers Charlie McCreevy and Dermot Ahern, and the former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson also arrived.
From the sports world there was the Dublin football manager Pat Gilroy and also former manager Paul Caffrey.
Other guests included Paddy Reilly and Joe Burke.
Louis Copeland, who said he had grown up with Bertie from the age of 12, joked that his lifelong buddy had better be wearing one of Copeland’s suits.
However, not all those outside Croke Park were on the guest list. Eamon Reid from Howth had a sign that read “Bertie’s Book – how I lost me memory won at da races bankrupted da country”. None of the guests were contributing to Mr Reid’s “Bertie dig-out fund”, which he said was to send Mr Ahern to somewhere hot – preferably Libya.