AS one of Fermanagh’s longest serving councillors, the outspoken Ulster Unionist, Bertie Kerr cut a colourful character around the council chamber for 30 years.

“I was maybe too honest to be a councillor,” he says, “I would have always done things for the council in the same way I would have conducted them for my own business.” The Ballinamallard man was a serving councillor between 1979 and 2011, excluding a four year period in the mid 1980s. Reflecting on three decades of service as a councillor he says: “Some of the things that happened you don’t really want to remember!” But he is quick to recount his fondest memory.

“I was chairman of the council in 1993 to 1994 when Princess Diana came to Fermanagh for the Armistice Service.

“I had the pleasure of speaking with her for a number of hours.

“We covered so many topics. But at one stage, I made the mistake of asking her how Charles was.

“I quickly realised this wasn’t a topic she wanted to discuss and changed the subject. There is a lovely photograph of her, myself and the then Chief Executive of the council, Gerry Burns. It hung in the civic suite in Townhall.

“But when Sinn Fein attempted to remove everything that was remotely British from Townhall, it went.

“I think it is in the museum now. I was very disappointed. It meant something to me.” Among his many other highlights, Bertie says he relished seeing the development of South West Acute Hospital, as well as being involved in the regeneration of many of Fermanagh’s towns and villages.

One darkest memory of Fermanagh District Council, however, is during a time when he wasn’t officially involved in local politics.

“I wasn’t a councillor at the time of the Enniskillen bomb, but I might as well have been,” he says.

“I spent a lot of time going around speaking to people and trying to bring common sense to a time that was so difficult for everyone. A lot of people who were killed in that bomb were close friends of mine. I tried to do everything I could to help those who were trying to cope with their loss.” He recalls too, how in 2010, Belfast’s High Court ruled that Fermanagh District Council had to pay the costs of an investigation into the appointment of Rodney Connor as Chief Executive in 2000. The legal bill amounted to around a quarter of a million pounds.

“It was a frustrating time,” he concedes.

Having witnessed so many changes in local politics over the years, Bertie decided to retire in 2011.

“I came to realise that I was not as bright as I used to be and my memory wasn’t as good either. I’m not terribly skilled with computers and I felt it was coming to the stage that it was my time to stand down. “Every dog has its day!” Asked about his thoughts on the new super council, he says: “It’s far too big. It’s not local politics any more when you consider the geography of the area this new council has to cover.”