Ahern predicts victory for agreement

By Michael P. Quinlin

BOSTON – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed confidence that at least 60 percent of voters in Ireland and Northern Ireland would vote yes in the upcoming referendum on the Belfast Agreement.

Speaking at Boston College’s commencement ceremony Monday morning before about 20,000 people, including 3,200 graduates and their families, Ahern linked the referendum to a similar one in 1918, the last time the whole population of Ireland got to vote on the island’s future.