Obama terrorism chief John Brennan woos the Irish vote while in Dublin

“I am just one of... many Irish Americans ... privileged to serve President Obama."

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John Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism advisor

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John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism delivered what could have been a campaign speech for Irish Americans from the Obama campaign in Dublin yesterday.

Brennan, widely credited with setting up the hit on Osama Bin Laden and whose father is from Roscommon, was speaking to the Institute of Institutional and European Affairs.

He made no bones about his own Irish heritage and the connections that President Obama made when he went to Ireland last year.

Brennan stated “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.  My 92-year-old father, Owen, was born and raised in County Roscommon—in Kilteevan and Lecarrow.  He worked as a blacksmith on the McCalmont estate in Kilkenny now known as the Mount Juliet Golf Club.  And although he left for America and settled in New Jersey, where I was raised, we still have family in County Roscommon, and I look forward to visiting them again tomorrow.

“Of course, I am just one of the many Irish Americans who are privileged to serve President Obama.  For instance, his national security team includes Vice President Biden; the President’s National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon; the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough; as well as our senior director for human rights—raised in Dublin and schooled by the nuns of Mount Anville—Samantha Power.  All proud Irish Americans.  As Vice President Biden has joked, “the President is surrounded by us.”

“Like so many Americans, we were moved by President Obama’s visit here last year and the incredible welcome and hospitality that he and the First Lady received.  His meeting with President McAleese and her husband, and the exuberant crowd at College Green, reflected the friendship and affection—the shared history, the common hopes—that bind our countries like no other.  His meeting with Taoiseach Kenny at Farmleigh House, and the hospitality of Mrs. Kenny, was a chance to reaffirm our cooperation on many fronts.  And the President’s visit to his ancestral home of Moneygall was a chance, as he said, to look for “the Moneygall Obamas.”

“That visit, like all the President’s meetings with Taoiseach Kenny, underscored the depth of cooperation between our countries, especially when it comes to the focus of my work—our shared security.  In this work we are profoundly grateful for our partnership with Ireland and the leadership that this nation displays around the world.

“We see Ireland’s leadership on this island, in its support for the Agreement that has inspired other nations to take their own risks for peace.  We see Ireland’s leadership across Europe, when Irish men and women in uniform help keep the peace in the Balkans.  And we look forward to working closely with our Irish friends as Ireland assumes the EU presidency next year.

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