He has played an important role in Anglo-Irish affairs, and was brought centre-stage in the Government's defence of the US military use of Shannon, writes Mark Hennessy
Thirty years ago, David Cooney left his home in London to travel to Dublin, via the MV Leinster Liverpool/Dublin ferry, and take a job in the Irish Civil Service.
This week, he was taken by horse-drawn carriage, courtesy of the British Crown, to present his credentials to Queen Elizabeth as Ireland's Ambassador to London.
It has been an extraordinary journey for the quiet-spoken Cooney, who attracts the kind of praise, freely and genuinely offered, that is usually reserved only for the most deserving of the dead.
Exceptional, decent, humorous, deeply patriotic, honest, calm: the plaudits seem never ending, and this in a business that is not infrequently filled with petty jealousies.
"He is undoubtedly one of the best political brains around. He is a man for whom I have absolutely huge admiration," says Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche.
"He will fight his corner and say, 'You are wrong, Minister'. He is not the sort of guy to give out plámás," says Roche, who worked closely with him when Ireland held the EU presidency. Still only in his early 50s, Cooney has already been one of the leading officials involved in the Belfast Agreement and hugely influential during Ireland's 2004 presidency.
Born in London in 1954, the son of Mick Cooney, a builder's labourer born in Ballykelly, Co Wexford, and his wife, Molly, Cooney has often taken the opposite direction to those around him.
One of four children, Cooney showed early promise, as was quickly shown by his ability to win a place with the Marist Fathers in their grammar school in Sidcup in Kent.
Unlike his other three siblings, Cooney had a deep sense of his Irishness from the earliest stage: "It seems almost to have been a near spiritual thing for him," one colleague says.
Unlike some emigrant families, the Irish connection was not buttressed by lengthy yearly visits to "the home place in Ireland". Instead, the fire remained lit from within. However, if Cooney was passionate about Ireland, he was and is also passionate about his local football team, Charlton Athletic, which he has supported, along with his father and brothers, since he was a boy.
"I'm glad that we could send him back to London, but sorry that his team have been relegated from the Premiership," Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern joked at an embassy reception this week. Over the years, travelling on the Irish Government's jet over England on the way back to Dublin, Cooney was often able to identify football grounds from the air, said one fellow diplomat this week.
From the Marist Fathers, he moved on to the University of Keele in Staffordshire, where he met his Belfast-born wife, Geraldine. The couple have four children.
Having decided to move to Ireland and apply for the Irish Civil Service, Cooney's desire to serve Ireland was rewarded with a place in the beef section in the Department of Agriculture in Kildare Street.
"Can you imagine a guy like him coming into the Department of Ag in the late 1970s with an English accent when people were leaving the country?" says another diplomat.
By 1979, Cooney was on his way to the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he served in a number of junior postings before getting the chance two years later to go to Rome as a third secretary.
Marked out early on as one of Foreign Affairs' rising stars, along with Dan Mulhall, Rory Montgomery, Bobby McDonagh, Pat Hennessy and others, Cooney spent the next decade slowly ascending the ranks.
By 1994, he had returned to Iveagh House to take charge of the preparation of the White Paper on Irish Foreign Policy under the watchful eye of then tánaiste Dick Spring.
Nearly 13 years old, the document laid the foundations for much of the work in Foreign Affairs since, particularly the ever-increasing overseas development aid budget.
Clearly successful in the role, Cooney was transferred to become counsellor in Foreign Affairs' most sensitive branch, the Anglo-Irish division.
The white-knuckle ride that led to the Belfast Agreement was, by then, long under way, but Cooney was to have a significant place in the drama as it played out. For the next three years, Cooney lived, ate and breathed Northern Ireland, becoming deeply involved in the Government's effort to extend contacts into Unionism.
During Sen George Mitchell's chairmanship of the Northern talks, Cooney acted as liaison between Mitchell's office and Dublin, impressing US officials such as Martha Pope.
"He was one of the most impressive people on the Irish delegation. We found him to be very straight and honest in his dealings," said David Trimble's adviser, Stephen King, this week.
BLESSED WITH HIS London accent, Cooney confused the British: "It was unusual to have an Irish representative speaking like a Brit. They kept thinking that he was one of them," says an Irish colleague.
Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam took an instinctive liking to Cooney: "She used to come into his office, sit up on the table, and say, 'What are we going to do about this, David?' "
In particular, Cooney was one of a number of officials who developed relations with political groupings representing paramilitary loyalists, and was warmly regarded by the late Progressive Unionist Party's David Ervine.
Since then, he has served in Paris, twice at the United Nations, including during Ireland's membership of the Security Council, and headed up the political division of Foreign Affairs back in Dublin.
For one who shies away from the limelight, Cooney was brought more into centre stage as the Government fended off a court challenge to its decision to let the United States military use Shannon. Successive governments, argued Cooney in his affidavit, had let the Americans use the midwest airport since 1948, and that change now would be "a radical and far-reaching change in our foreign policy". By 2004, Cooney, was one of the lead on-the-ground officials, led by Michael Collins and working alongside Bobby McDonagh, Rory Montgomery and Helen Blake, as the government prepared for the EU presidency.
THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, Cooney has had the ability to earn the confidence and trust of his political masters and others, such as the then British European Commissioner, Chris Patten.
Brian Cowen, in particular, trusted him. "Cooney had a difficult job, trying to speak for all of the Union member states. They had a good relationship. You'd often hear Cowen calling out, 'Where's David?' " says one diplomat.
One of Foreign Affairs' "cerebral figures", Cooney manages, unlike some others, to wear his intellect easily, never intimidating others with it: "He is the ultimate team player," says one ambassador.
The ability to win the ear of those in power has served Cooney well. Now, with Northern Ireland slowly dipping off Foreign Affairs' radar, he must help to redefine the Irish/British relationship.
Already, Cooney's appointment has been greeted warmly by Irish groups in Britain: "It is really significant that an Irishman born here should now become ambassador," says Maureen Morrison of St Michael's Irish Centre in Liverpool.
Though unwilling to be interviewed about himself, Cooney is quick to let it be known that he is not the first English-born Irish ambassador to London - that distinction is held by Liverpudlian John Whelan Dulanty, who represented Ireland in London in the 1940s.
Deeply honoured to return to London as ambassador, Cooney will now have to build new relations with Downing Street, now that the open-door era of Tony Blair has been replaced by Gordon Brown.
"London is an important job, one of the most important in the service. The pols knew what they were doing when they put him in there," says one Foreign Affairs senior official.
Through it all, his father, Mick, who left Wexford nearly 60 years ago with his sister, Peg and brother, Paddy, will no doubt look on proudly. It has been a long road from Ballykelly to the Court of St James.
TheCooneyFile
Who is he?David Cooney, the London-born son of an Irish emigrant, Charlton Athletic supporter and Department of Foreign Affairs official, who still speaks with the accent of the city of his birth.
Why is he in the news?He is Ireland's newly appointed Ambassador to London, and presented his credentials this week to Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace.
Most appealing characteristic:Brilliant, straight-talking, with a most unForeign Affairs-like self-deprecating sense of humour, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Charlton Athletic.
Least appealing characteristic:Depending on the audience, the same encyclopedic knowledge of Charlton Athletic.
Most likely to say:"Minister, perhaps I could suggest . . ."
Least likely to say:"Crystal Palace till I die"