An Irishman's Diary

Six months ago, nobody had heard of him. Now Paddy the Plasterer is everywhere: turning up among the select group of solstice-watchers at Newgrange, attending the Ireland-England rugby match in Croke Park and - this week - emerging as Bertie Ahern's constituency director.

But as an exhaustive trawl of the archives shows, Paddy has been a central, if mostly unnoticed, figure in politics for many years.

January 2005: The Taoiseach leads a 300-strong trade mission to China, as Ireland bids to strengthen links with the oriental superpower. Paddy the Plasterer is not listed among the official delegation. But in photographs taken on the Great Wall, a man strongly resembling him can be seen just to the left of the Taoiseach, apparently checking the 2,000-year-old masonry for cracks.

September 2004: Father Sean Healy of Cori delivers the keynote address as Fianna Fáil undergoes two days of soul-searching in Inchydoney, Co Cork. Insiders admit, however, that the scheduled bonding events are just as important in helping the party to find itself. A construction skills workshop - entitled "wall-surfacing techniques" and delivered by a man identified only as "Paddy"- is said to have been particularly influential. Several participants emerge from it half-plastered, and the Taoiseach later converts to socialism.

June 2004: As president of the EU, Mr Ahern attends the G8 summit on an island off Georgia. Newspaper photographs of the meeting are dominated by his controversial yellow trousers, as he and the other world leaders stroll along the beach. But in grainy amateur footage, a man who looks very like Paddy the Plasterer can just be made out in the background, riding a jet-ski.

January 2003: Dubliners watch in awe as the final section of the Millennium Spire is hoisted into place. There is a collective intake of breath as an unidentified project team member, standing inside the already erected part of the structure, waves cheerfully to the crowd 100 metres below him and then guides the tip into position, getting his arm out of the way just in time. The crane driver is later heard muttering: "I thought Paddy was a goner there for a minute."

October 2001: As the remains of Kevin Barry are brought to Glasnevin Cemetery for reinterment, 80 years after his execution, an unidentified man steps forward to carry the coffin. He accompanies the cortege for several paces before slipping back into the crowd. "Good man Paddy," somebody shouts, slapping him on the back.

April 1998: It is the early hours of Good Friday, and TV cameras trained on Stormont capture the image of Seamus Mallon and Bríd Rodgers embracing in the SDLP offices - the first sign that the epic peace negotiations have ended in a deal. In an office nearby, however, almost unseen, the Taoiseach can be seen giving an emotional bear-hug to a man whose strong physique suggests to onlookers that he has spent time in the construction industry. It is now thought that Paddy the Plasterer's central role in the negotiations was played down so as not to distract from the similarly important part played by Senator George Mitchell.

July 1997: Bertie Ahern has been elected Taoiseach. Meanwhile, on the beaches of Wexford, filming begins on Saving Private Ryan, Stephen Spielberg's epic film about the Normandy landings, which is benefiting from the Irish Government's generous tax incentives. Paddy the Plasterer is not listed among the vast army of extras. But next time you see the movie, watch out for the French onion-seller in Scene 12.

February 1992: Minutes before Bertie Ahern presents his first budget, there is consternation among journalists at Leinster House when an unknown man appears on the steps and poses with the famous briefcase, smiling broadly. He then hands the briefcase to the Minister of Finance, who has been waiting nearby. "Thanks, Bertie, I always wanted to do that," the unknown man says. Mr Ahern replies: "Don't mention it, Paddy."

June 1986: As newly elected Lord Mayor of Dublin, Bertie Ahern TD wonders aloud one night in Fagans how he can leave his stamp on the Mansion House. Paddy the Plasterer suggests pebble-dashing it. Although the comment is generally regarded as humorous, the proposal causes a short-lived alarm among conservationists.

1977: Mr Ahern wins election to the Dáil for the first time. He is carried in triumph from the count centre by an unidentified man, described as "broad-shouldered".

1968: As an apprentice plasterer, Paddy Reilly gets a summer job working on a newly built office block in Washington, which is to house the Democratic Party headquarters.

It is his first experience of politics, albeit an indirect one. The job involves surfacing the exterior walls of a building which has yet to become famous. Years later, back in Ireland, Paddy will joke that he took part in the "Watergate cover-up".