A CHARITY HAS been given a bit of a digout thanks to a pair of Bertie Ahern’s cufflinks.

The pair of gold-framed cufflinks, one carrying an American flag and one depicting the Irish tricolour, were auctioned off for €850 on Budget night. The new owner, believed to be from New York, now owns the wrist accessory once worn by the former Taoiseach as a symbol of the “special relationship and friendship between Ireland and America”.

They were sold off as part of the Jewels for Cures auction in aid of cancer research at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. Today’s Irish Daily Mail says Bertie’s cufflinks interested just two bidders, both American.

Ronan Keating donated a silver dragon bracelet to the auction (it went for €150) and model Rosanna Davison handed over a silver and amber necklace and earring set. Among the other lots from less well-known donors was a Pablo Picasso lithograph which yielded a top bid of €7,000 on the night at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin.