Irish FBI agent hails college lectures for career

A Kerry native from the town of Ardfert is making waves as a member of one of the world’s most famous law enforcement agencies, the FBI.

Deaglán Ryan, a 1995 UCC graduate in applied psychology, is based at the agency’s New York office where he says “small pieces of history are made every day”.

Having moved to California after college in the mid-1990s, where he first joined the organisation begun by the legendary J Edgar Hoover, he admits it is a career full of “interesting possibilities with no two days ever the same”.

Having been influenced in his youth by the exploits of the ‘G-Men’ in films like Silence of the Lambs and The Firm as well as the novels of Tom Clancy, Ryan credits his UCC lectures in criminal psychology as the prime factor in his eventual choice of profession.

“It drew me in and fascinated me, and definitely planted the seed that one day I would like to work in this arena.”

Based at the New York Criminal Division investigating white-collar crime, he says the work ranges from days spent safely sitting at a computer catching up on administrative issues and paperwork to dawn raids on suspected gangland hideouts with weapons drawn “where you never know what will meet you on the other side of that door”.

Most agents routinely participate in arrests, and “it is acknowledged that just by choosing to do this job that a certain amount of inherent risk exists”.

“You rely on your training, the backup of your fellow agents, and meticulous planning to keep you out of danger, but personal risk is part of what we do and you deal with that.”

The FBI is not the best career for anyone wanting a quiet life. “The hours are often long and unpredictable, and family and one’s social life often takes second place, at least while the work is being done, to the exigencies of the job. Flexibility is key. Everybody understands this. I’ve been with the bureau for some years now, but relatively speaking, I know I am going to feel like ‘the new guy’ for a couple of more years at least.”

He has had no second thoughts about his career choice so far. “I can absolutely see myself being content to stay here for quite a while to come,” he says.

Despite his burgeoning career with the FBI, Ryan does not rule out returning to ‘the auld sod’. “I could definitely live in Ireland again, and it is a very real possibility down the line,” he says.

“I have been afforded opportunities and experiences here that would have been impossible to realise had I not come to live and work in America. But the young lad who grew up in that small Kerry village is still alive and well, and often thinks, nostalgically, about returning.

“My parents, quoting the Bard of Ballycarry, often remind me that ‘the savage loves his native shore’. I’ve learnt that you never rule anything out in this life,” he says.