Joseph Brennan (18 November 1887 – 19 March 1976) was an Irish economist and senior Irish civil servant who served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1943 to 1953. Brennan was born in Cork in 1887, but was a native of Bandon, County Cork. In 1909, he entered Christ Church, Cambridge, where he studied Mathematics and then switched to classics. In successive years he obtained a first in Latin and Greek. In 1911, he entered the Civil Service and was assigned to the Board of Customs and Excise and a year later transferred to the finance division of the Chief Secretary's office in Dublin Castle.