In June 1997, Bertie Ahern (born 1951) was elected as the Prime Minister (Taoiseach) of the Republic of Ireland. He became the youngest person to have ever occupied the post up to that time. Ahern was one of the major engineers of the so-called "Irish Miracle" that, over the span of a decade, helped to shift the focus and balance of trade on the island from an emphasis on mostly agrarian and cottage industries to that of a noted industrial and technological exporter.

Ahern was born Bartholomew Ahern on September 12, 1951, in Dublin, Ireland. His parents, Julia and Cornelius Ahern, raised their son in one of the working-class neighborhoods on the north side of the city. Ahern's father was a farmer who had joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the early 1920s when Ireland was fighting for its independence from England. Ahern's parents were staunch supporters of the republican political...