(Bloomberg) --
When Phil Hogan was fighting for his political life, he knew just who to turn to: his enemy.
Battling a party rebellion before Ireland's 2011 election, Hogan reached out to an old contact among the plotters, one of the people involved said. Each was trying to uncover the double-crossers who'd pledged loyalty to both camps, so they agreed to compare notes.
But when it came to wrangling votes from their shared intel, it was Hogan who came out on top. His man Enda Kenny survived the leadership challenge and went on to become prime minister. Hogan began his ascent to one of the European Union's most pivotal jobs—Trade Commissioner.
It's the sort of episode that earned Hogan his reputation as a power broker behind the scenes who'll seek out alliances, however unlikely, to cut a deal.
“He understands the needs and arguments of the other side better than anyone I have ever met,” says Frank Flannery, a party colleague who has known Hogan for almost 30 years. “He almost starts from the point, what does the other person want?”
“Big Phil”—as the six-foot-five commissioner is known in Brussels—will need all of those smarts in his new role, seeking to defuse tensions with Donald Trump and hammer out a deal with the U.K. after Brexit. On Wednesday he was huddled with French Finance Chief Bruno Le Maire in Brussels as they tackled the first crisis of his new job—U.S. tariffs threats against France.
Hogan, who declined requests for an interview, grew up a farmer's son near Tullaroan, a sleepy village of about 300 people nestled against the hills 70 miles south of Dublin, where the fearsome Irish sport of hurling is king.
Hurling is like an X-rated version of field hockey. The skills involved—and sometimes the violence—can be eye-watering and Hogan was a keen player before a hand injury halted his career in his early twenties.
Upon his appointment as trade commissioner, Hogan warned Trump to expect a “bit of ground hurling”—a technique in which an opponent can also get whacked along with the ball.
But politics was his real calling.
Mary Hilda Cavanagh, Ireland's longest-serving female councillor, remembers meeting him when he was 14, waiting for his father to bring him home after a council meeting.
When his father died in 1982, Hogan took his seat on Kilkenny County Council. Three years later, he later became its youngest ever leader and in 1994, at 34, he became a junior minister in the finance department.
“I think he always wanted to be a politician,” Cavanagh said in an interview. “He intended to go places.”
Six weeks into his first ministerial job, though, he was sacked, carrying the can after a newspaper was faxed budget details from his office.
At the Royal Dublin hotel that night, a group of friends waited for him, led by long-time confidante, Senator Paddy Burke.
“He was very down—it was a big blow,” said Burke. “But Hogan was always determined to bounce back.”
As he set about rebuilding his career, Hogan got a job as national organizer for his party, traveling the country, selecting candidates. It gave him an extensive party network.
“That made him very useful,” said Brian Hayes, a former European lawmaker and party colleague.
A 2002 run for the party leadership faltered, but placing third he made sure most of his votes transferred to Kenny, sealing what became a defining political relationship.
Hogan and Kenny were natural allies—both from rural districts, both from political families. They shared an interest in Gaelic sports and, often, lunches in Dublin.
Through almost a decade in opposition, they tussled with the Labour party while eyeing a potential coalition to oust traditional rivals Fianna Fail.
“Phil is strategic,” said Feargal Purcell, Kenny's press spokesman in government and now a director at public relations firm Edelman. “He will always have the horizon in view and work towards that.”
When Labour Leader Eamonn Gilmore bested Kenny in debates, most of his team would growl and curse at their rivals. Hogan would compliment Gilmore and occasionally invite his advisers for beers — conscious that he would one day need their help.
But as they prepared to fight an election in the midst of Ireland's financial crash, Kenny faced a crisis.
Hogan was in London, at a party fundraising with Paddy Burke, when he heard that party rebels were mounting a leadership challenge. The pair took an early flight home to lead the fightback.
At first, the odds seemed overwhelming—almost all of Kenny's shadow cabinet had come out against him.
But Hogan had picked up a few tricks during his years running the party operations.
As well as backchanneling to work out who he could trust, Hogan's camp sowed panic among the plotters by repeating back to them an overheard conversation, another person involved said. The rebels were convinced they had a mole in the camp.
“Everybody has their own bag of tricks and they don't divulge them,” says Burke with a grin. “There's a lot of things in the bag.”
As payback, Kenny made him Agriculture Commissioner in 2014, according to one confidante. The Brexit vote two years later placed Hogan center stage as the go-to figure in Brussels for decoding British maneuvers over the Irish border.
Hogan didn't just offer advice, he waded into the fray.
Boris Johnson “seems to view himself as a modern day Churchill,” Hogan said in August, mocking the British leader's pretension. A no-deal Brexit would mean, “Never have so few done so much damage to so many,” he added, parodying a famous wartime speech.
Hogan's interventions would draw a chuckle from Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, according to one person, who knows them both. But they also served to reassure the French that an Irish trade chief wouldn't be soft on London during post-Brexit negotiations.
Hogan has a talent for keeping people happy, says Carlos Moedas who grew close to Hogan as Portugal's representative on the last commission.
Moedas's Brussels office overlooked the Berlaymont roundabout, where farmers gathered regularly for protests before Hogan took over the agriculture brief.
“I don't remember seeing the farmers once,” he said. “That's because of his political skill.”
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net
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