The Good Friday Agreement is 20 years old this week and for former Fianna Fáil TD and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, it brings back some historic memories but also some heartbreaking ones too.
Ahern was just in the infancy of his 11-year reign as Taoiseach and was in the middle of putting the final touches to the Good Friday Agreement to get it signed.
He has been in the public eye for decades and in that time, Ahern only has one regret and it happened during that period.
Caught up in the media storm that surrounded the Agreement, Ahern found himself in the area where his mother lived but chose not to visit as he wanted to keep a lowish profile until the Agreement went through.
He told The Irish Independent that it’s something that he wishes he could change.
“One regret that lives with me every day is that I didn’t get back to the house that day,”
“I was in Drumcondra that evening and I was within 50 yards of the house; I was within 50 yards of the house the following morning but didn’t call,” he said.
“I was to go and visit my mam on the Friday night and I didn’t do it; and I didn’t do it on the Saturday morning.”
His mother had a heart-attack on the Sunday, and was buried on the Wednesday before the Good Friday Agreement was settled.
“I never got to speak to her again. She was alive in the Mater hospital, but she wasn’t “engaging”.
“Every day I think about that; I just didn’t go 50 yards. The lesson is that when you think of your parents: call.”
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