The spy who doesn’t talk shop at the Roscommon family reunions

The son of Irish emigrants, John Brennan was this week announced as Obama’s choice to head up the CIA. Caroline O’Doherty investigates

FAMILY reunions are a chance to catch up on gossip from home and work, but when the Brennans get together in Roscommon, the one with the most fascinating water cooler stories stays politely but resolutely schtum.

“It was very much casual talk,” says Owen Brennan of his most recent encounter with his first cousin, John. When it came to John’s job, “he didn’t go there”. That’s not surprising — outside the office, spies rarely talk shop.

The cousin he speaks of is John Owen Brennan, who has just been nominated by US President Barack Obama as director of the CIA.

His appointment has yet to be confirmed as it must be scrutinised by the Senate Intelligence Committee in the coming weeks, but it would take a major upset for him not to become the latest Irish-American to rise to the top in the Obama administration.

Brennan, 57, is the son of another Owen Brennan from Clooneskert, a townland so small it boasted about four homes, in the parish of Kilteevan a few miles from Roscommon Town.

According to cousin Owen, who still lives in the county, the Brennans later moved to the townland of Mount Plunkett in Lecarrow, a few miles the other side of the town.

And that was as adventurous as this generation of Brennans went until Owen, future father of John, took off for Kilkenny to become blacksmith on the McCalmont estate, later to become Mount Juliet and home of Ballylinch Stud.

His next step was rather bigger — all the way to New Jersey in the US, where he married and starting a family that integrated well into America while never forgetting its Irish roots.

John Brennan spoke of his dual heritage when he visited Ireland last October to address the Institute of International and European Affairs. Describing himself as “a son and citizen of Ireland”, he said: “It is wonderful to be in Ireland on a very personal level. I am one of the tens of millions of Americans who proudly trace our heritage to this island and its people.”

He went on to outline his now 92-year-old dad’s background and revealed he would travel to Ros-common the next day to meet up with family still living there.

That was probably too much information even then, given that the CIA veteran of 25 years service was then Obama’s chief adviser on homeland security and counter-terrorism.

Certainly it was more than the Brennans back in Roscommon knew. “He arrived at the doorstep unannounced,” cousin Owen told RTÉ yesterday. “We knew he was coming but not exactly when.”

If he gets the post of CIA head, even those vague pronouncements are likely to vanish. As head of an organisation with an estimated 20,000 employees [staff numbers are classified information], working largely covertly in probably every country in the world and guiding US military activity in every global hot spot, secrecy will be his byword.

He has already proved his capacity for keeping a lid on any gift of the gab in his DNA. A fluent Arabic speaker, he served as station chief in Saudi Arabia and as analyst on the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to name a few areas that need handled with care.

He was also a key player in the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 and features in the famous Situation Room photograph, standing with Obama and his closest advisers as they watch the operation unfold by satellite link.

But secrecy has also led to controversy. Brennan’s support for “enhanced interrogation techniques”, namely waterboarding and other forms of torture, when he was director of George W Bush’s National Counterterrorism Centre, left a stain on his reputation.

He has worked to end the worst human rights violations in recent years and spoken of his wish for transparency in policy and practice as far as possible. But opponents criticise him and Obama for refusing to hold investigations into past activities.

He faces questioning on the issue by the Senate Intelligence Committee but the prospect is unlikely to faze him. When his nomination was announced on Monday, he was the epitome of understatement, speaking briefly, affably, and even humorously of the challenges ahead.

It was the same demeanour he displayed in Dublin last October when he made the requisite joke about visiting the Guinness Storehouse during his trip, before going on to speak about security co-operation between the US and Europe.

He is a family man with a son and twin daughters with his wife, Kathy, and is close to his parents, crediting their support with enabling him carry the responsibilities his career to date has entailed.

If his nomination is confirmed, he will replace former war hero General David Petraeus, who resigned late last year amid allegations over an affair with his biographer.

John Brennan’s last act, says cousin Owen, would preferably be a return to Roscommon.

“The last time he was here he expressed an outside chance that he would like to retire to Ireland,” he revealed.

Watch out for unannounced visits in 2016.