Later, he qualified as a barrister and was a popular member of the profession presenting a jersey signed by the Brazilian World Cup winning team to colleagues to be hung in their recreation room and representing football manager Roddy Collins in a dispute with his former employer, the FAI.
Rooney pulled off an international publicity coup in 1998 when then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and US president Bill Clinton signed an electronic commerce deal using technology developed by his company, Baltimore Technologies. In a condolence message on RIP.ie, former minister Dermot Ahern said: “He was a total gentleman to deal with.”
Although Rooney’s business career propelled him to the heights of an award-winning, internationally known businessman, his feet remained firmly on the ground whether it was in business, sport or the law. However, undoubtedly he is best known for the rise and fall of Baltimore Technologies, which once traded on the stock exchange at almost £137 (€160) a share before plummeting to 14p, and, after a series of owners, was delisted from the stock exchange in 2005.
Rooney started out working in Quay Financial Software owned by businessman and investor Dermot Desmond. When it was sold he transferred to IIU, Desmond’s underwriting firm based in the IFSC in Dublin. There, he was asked to investigate the developing area of encryption (payment security) for financial transactions.
Desmond told Ivor Kenny, for the latter’s book Achievers, how Rooney “found” Professor Michael Purser in Trinity College Dublin who had a small company called Baltimore specialising in that area in 1996. They took an option on it, invested heavily and brought in professional management eventually merging it with a much larger UK-based public company called Zergo. Rooney became chief executive of the venture, keeping its Irish name and increasing its workforce from just six to more than 400 at its height.
A combination of its technology, the dotcom bubble and the Celtic Tiger drove the shares to heights unseen in Ireland and a valuation of $13bn, making him a paper billionaire. It was listed on the prestigious London FTSE 100 and Nasdaq exchanges, becoming more valuable than Bank of Ireland and British Airways.
Rooney won a slew of awards and was lionised in business circles in Dublin, London and Silicon Valley. Investors and staff who had shareholdings would stop to tell him how they had bought a house or a car with their profits.
However, Desmond spoke of how, foreseeing the threat to Baltimore technology from biometrics (using the fingerprint/eye to verify identity), he sold portions of his holding as the share price rose.
“It looked as if Baltimore was going to take over the world, but I wouldn’t believe that until it had done so,” Desmond told Kenny.
“I sold (shares in Baltimore) five times and each time the price went up. The papers, of course, got a hold of this and the consensus was that Desmond knows zilch and everybody else knows the right thing. I began to think that maybe I had lost it.”
At its height, in summer 2000, Rooney cashed in some of his own shareholding, earning £5.8m. He was declared businessman and entrepreneur of the year the same year.
When the bubble burst 12 months later the shares plunged 90pc to 14p although the company had more than £20m in cash. He stepped down as chairman in late 2001. His comment in a later RTÉ documentary on his adventures, Raging Bulls, was “Je ne regrette rien” — words from a Edith Piaf song.
“Rooney had a certain hard-nosed charm, chutzpah and hunger for success,” Donal Lynch wrote in 2006 in the Sunday Independent.
“He was like the Irish version of Icarus — headstrong and ambitious, they flew too high, too fast and paid the price. But even as we survey the wreckage from his fall it’s as well to acknowledge that he at least failed by daring greatly.”
Fran Rooney at the old Lansdowne Road stadium, Dublin, in 2004. Photo: Sportsfile
Rooney grew up in Cabra on Dublin’s northside. At a young age the Leeds United supporter joined soccer club Home Farm and went on to play for Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic and Bohemians. He also managed the Republic of Ireland women’s squad from 1986 to 1991.
He acknowledged after his appointment as CEO of the FAI in 2003: “That was a labour of love. I’ve been in love with football since I was a kid so I tried to put something back.”
He attended Westland Row CBS, where past pupils included footballers Jackie Carey and Ray Treacy. He was Row Person of the Year in 2004.
After school he joined the civil service while training to be an accountant at night. He also took a degree in administrative science and transferred to An Post, working in the GPO as a systems analyst. He left the public service for a job in National Irish Bank, becoming general manager and later spent a year as managing director of Vat processing company Meridian. He was then recruited by Gerry Giblin to join Dermot Desmond’s Quay Financial Software.
After the Baltimore rollercoaster ended in 2001, he took a keen interest in the Saipan debacle at Ireland’s appearance in the 2002 World Cup and Roy Keane’s tantrum and departure from the tournament.
Following the Genesis Report into the structure of the FAI he was appointed its first CEO to acclaim.
However, it lasted just 18 months. Rooney “found himself in an organisation he couldn’t manage”, according to one commentator.
At his funeral mass on Friday, mementos of his sporting career were brought to the altar, including a football signed by the Irish international soccer team and a black belt in kick-boxing, which he acquired at the age of 50. Rooney also served as a director and chairman of several companies including Vimeo, a streaming service for mobile phones, and broadband provider Ice.
In 2008, at the age of 52, he qualified as a barrister.
“My real ambition in life was always the law,” he said at the time. He studied for three years at night while working full-time at a family-founded technology company. He also kept his studies from all but close friends and family.
His best friend, Declan Flynn, said at his funeral that when he asked Rooney what he would do as a hobby when he had made his money and retired, Rooney replied he would study law. “Some hobby,” Flynn said.
Rooney’s daughter Yvonne told the funeral about his “remarkable vision and leadership” in business and sport, which was “a vital part of who he was”, adding that his later career as a barrister combined his “sharp mind and deep sense of justice”.
Rooney, who lived in Castleknock in Dublin, died last Monday.
He is survived by his former wife Mary, his partner Jackie, and his children Yvonne, Dave and Laura.