Cooney appointed to top diplomatic post

Ireland’s ambassador to Britain has been appointed as the Government’s top diplomat.

David Cooney, who was based in the Irish embassy in London, will replace senior civil servant Dermot Gallagher in the secretary general’s post in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The appointment was approved by the Government at today’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

Mr Cooney, 54, has almost 30 years of experience in the diplomatic corps with previous postings in New York, Vienna, Brussels and Paris.

He also helped negotiate the 1998 Good Friday Agreement while heading up the Anglo-Irish Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In 2007, Mr Cooney was moved as Ireland’s envoy to the UN in New York to become Irish Ambassador to Britain.

Mr Gallagher, who is retiring, has been secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs since 2001.

A former ambassador to the US and Nigeria, he is one of Ireland’s most experienced diplomats.

In 2006, he revealed to an Oireachtas Committee that he received death threats while travelling in the North during the height of the Troubles.