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Rooney’s love for homeland ends with service to Ireland

Dan Rooney was discussing a favorite topic, his relationship with Mother Ireland and the pride he felt when tapped to serve as U.S. ambassador there in 2009, when his assistant tucked her head in with word of a call he might want to take.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Rooney,” she said, “but did you want to talk to Niall Burgess?”

“Speaking of Ireland,” Rooney said apologetically, making his way across the office to the phone behind his desk. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Recently appointed Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland, Burgess has been a friend going back to his days as Ireland’s consul general in New York. Rooney wanted to thank him for helping one of his grandsons with a class project.

Rooney, walking with then-Sen. Barack Obama during an April 2008 campaign stop, was nominated by the president as U.S. ambassador to Ireland in 2009.
Photo by: AP IMAGES

Rooney’s connection to his heritage long has gone far beyond the typical green-wearing, corned-beef-and-cabbage traditions of St. Patrick’s Day. He made his first trip to Ireland in 1971 and two years later began what has become an annual pilgrimage.

But even that was not a deep enough connection for Rooney. In 1974, he met Tony O’Reilly, the new head of the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Co., at a party to welcome him to town. O’Reilly, who had been a star rugby player in Ireland, naturally gravitated to the owner of the local football team.

As their friendship developed, they began hosting fundraisers to benefit peaceful, community-based causes in Ireland, then merged with a similar group to create the American Ireland Fund, which has raised more than $150 million.

Rooney was so involved in the matters of Ireland that Art Rooney II used to kid his father about it each summer as he

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SBJ Podcast:
Senior writer Bill King and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour talk about Dan Rooney's many passions and what he has meant to the game of football.

prepared to head abroad.

“He would take trips to Ireland every June, and before long he turned that trip into a business trip,” Art II said. “It wasn’t a vacation anymore. This was Ireland business he was on. And as that grew, I used to kid him. ‘You think you’re the ambassador to Ireland.’ And then, he wound up doing it!”

Others thought the same but weren’t kidding.

Former NFL Commissioner Tagliabue remembers being on a trip to Dublin with Rooney in 1997 to prepare for the now defunct American Bowl, a preseason series that toured the world, thinking about what a natural fit he’d find in diplomacy.

“There were any number of occasions where I could see that at some point he could step up and take that official role as an ambassador, so it wasn’t a big surprise to me when he did,” Tagliabue said. “He never said explicitly that he was going to do that. But his engagement in Ireland was so deep, and the pride that he took in dealing with the president of Ireland and having the Rooney Prize [awarded annually to an Irish writer under age 40], those kinds of things — you could sense at some point he was going to pass the baton with the Steelers to someone else in the family and take a role in Ireland, which he would find to be very rewarding and in many ways the capstone to his life.”

While Rooney was thrilled to accept the post, he is quick to point out that he neither sought nor expected it. He knows many assume it was the quid pro quo for his support of President Barack Obama, for whom he campaigned steadfastly in 2008 in a hotly contested primary against Hillary Clinton, and then again with Pennsylvania anticipated to be a battleground state in the general election.

The story behind that is a telling one.

Rooney first warmed to Obama when he watched his keynote during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He decided to back him in the presidential race after watching Obama address supporters after topping the Iowa caucuses. Captivated so much that he was unable to sleep, he phoned son Jim, who once ran for state senate in Pennsylvania and has remained active in politics.

“I like this guy,” Dan told his son. “I’m for him.”

“I’m for Hillary,” Jim said.

“Fine, you be for Hillary,” Dan said, “but I’m for this guy and maybe I want to get involved.”

Jim knew that the mix of sports and politics could be combustible. They agreed that they would look for ways Rooney could support Obama as an individual without conveying the goodwill of the Steelers. That proved impossible. When Dan presented Obama with a Steelers jersey at a rally, it brought a rain of criticism from fans who felt he’d crossed the line.

“It all turned out fine,” Rooney says when asked about it today, which is what he says about many of the difficulties he has endured over the years.

What matters to him is that Obama won. And though he stresses it never was his intention, which he conveyed to Jim when he first called with news that the new president wanted to nominate him as U.S. ambassador to Ireland in March 2009, the bond they forged during the campaign led to an appointment that fanned the one passion that has come close to rivaling what he feels for family and football.

At first, Art II thought the job would be mostly ceremonial. Though his father had turned the Steelers presidency over to him in 2003, Dan still came to the office daily and remained engaged as ever on league matters. Art II couldn’t envision anything supplanting that.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (second from right) hosts a flag ceremony for the outgoing ambassador in January 2013. Rooney’s wife, Patricia (right), and one of his granddaughters join the ceremony at the State Department in Washington, D.C.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

“He got there and realized quickly that it was a full-time job,” Art II said. “And then he made it much more than a full-time job. It became his passion.”

From the start, Rooney made it clear that his emphasis would be much as it was during his time working in the country as a private citizen: Improving the lives of the Irish, both Protestant and Catholic.

“I did things that had never been done before,” Rooney said. “I visited every county in Ireland; went and met all the people. I said … my object will be to let the people of Ireland know that, one, we care and, two, we want to work with you. I took that message all over.”

The first year, Rooney came back for eight NFL games. In an extraordinary show of loyalty, he traveled to New York for the opening of the Giants’ new stadium, drawn by the fact that the Maras came to the first game at Heinz Field even though their team was not playing. He flew in, attended the game, and flew back the next day.

The next season, he made it to six games. Then four. The longer he was in Ireland, the more his travel schedule was dictated by what was happening in Ireland than at home.

As a boy, Rooney joined his father at the Steelers’ offices on most Saturdays. Since going to work full-time with the team, he has gone to the Steelers’ offices or to the stadium or training camp six or seven days a week.

When NFL owners asked Commissioner Roger Goodell when Rooney would return from Ireland, he told them it would be when he finished what he’d set out to do. When asked directly, Rooney would say no more than, “I serve at the pleasure of the president.”

But things changed in December 2012 when Rooney’s daughter, Rita, died unexpectedly at age 54. The Rooneys returned to Pittsburgh to be with family.

Two weeks later, Dan resigned as ambassador.


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