By Patrick Markey
Patrick Brennan, the Irish-born New York City police chief whose illustrious career saw him rise from a street cop pounding the sidewalk in Brooklyn Heights to a highly regarded ranking official, died on Saturday after battling with cancer just months after retiring. He was 63 years old.
On Monday as the crowds watched Memorial Day marches in Brooklyn, city cops gathered at McLaughlin Funeral Home in Bay Ridge, Brennan’s adopted neighborhood, to pay their last respects to the man who had often lent a helping hand to the city’s Irish community.
Born into a farming family in County Mayo, Brennan immigrated to the U.S. in 1958 and found himself living in Bay Ridge, then a predominantly Irish neighborhood. After working in the meat markets in Hell’s Kitchen and a stint as a barman, Brennan was persuaded by relatives to take the NYPD entrance exam. He took the test, did better than he expected and was soon patrolling the promenade in Brooklyn Heights.
Brennan’s 34-year police career took him from a post as a precinct commander, to a detectives squad, to Internal Affairs Bureau, and, finally, to Brooklyn South, as an assistant police chief in charge of one of the city’s busiest patrol borough commands. It was a career that had left an indelible mark on his life. In an interview just after he retired from the NYPD in August, Brennan said: "It’s been such a part of me for a generation. I’m never going to leave it in spirit."
Brennan is survived by his wife, Monica, two daughters, Maureen and Tara, and four sons, Martin, John, Dermott and Patrick, two of whom are in the police department.
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A funeral Mass for Brennan will be held today, Wednesday, at his parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, on Fifth Avenue between 59th and 60th streets, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.