Ireland PM to Resign Amid Corruption Inquiry

DUBLIN — Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland, one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, who was closely involved in the negotiations that brought peace to Northern Ireland, announced Wednesday that he would resign next month.

He denied accusations of corruption in the 1990s, when he was finance minister, but said he was quitting to prevent his government’s work from being “constantly deflected by the minutiae of my life, my lifestyle and my finances.” He forecast that a tribunal investigating payments received by Irish politicians would find that he had not acted improperly.

In emotional tones at a hastily convened news conference here, Mr. Ahern, 56, said he would quit on May 6. A week before that, he is to address both houses of Congress in Washington.

The announcement Wednesday sealed a reversal of fortunes for a man once nicknamed the Teflon Taoiseach — the Irish word for leader or prime minister — for his ability to survive onslaughts by political foes.