Biographical Material - Paulyn Marrinan Quinn SC, Ombudsman for the Defence Forces

Paulyn Marrinan Quinn, Senior Counsel is a member of the Bar of Ireland and was also called to the Bars of Northern Ireland and England and Wales. Paulyn was appointed as the founding Ombudsman for the Defence Forces in Ireland in September 2005. She was the founding Insurance Ombudsman of Ireland (1992 to 1998) during which time she gained considerable experience in establishing the Office of an Ombudsman. Paulyn is the third generation in her family to practice law but also developed a keen interest in the practice of non-adversarial ways of resolving conflict and disputes. Pursuant to establishing the Centre of Excellence for the teaching, study, and practice of conflict and dispute resolution, she founded a Post Graduate Course of Conflict and Dispute Resolution Studies in Trinity College Dublin University in 2000. Paulyn is the director of that programme and Adjunct Lecturer in Mediation and ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Studies at Trinity College.

Paulyn has lectured and trained in the area of dispute resolution extensively at home and abroad. As a member of the Bar Council of Ireland's Alternative Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Committee, she organised and directed accredited mediation training for members of the Irish Bar in 2004 and 2005. She has advised in relation to the creation of bespoke Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, and Mediation Schemes and provided training.

She was a founding member of the British & Irish Ombudsman Association (1994). Paulyn has extensive experience as a mediator at home and abroad and has been guest lecturer in a number of Universities and the Law Society School of Law in Dublin. She has addressed conferences in the U.K. on mediation and was recently appointed by the Minister for Finance in Ireland as a member of the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal (2007). She has been a member of dispute resolution panels with a number of Statutory Bodies. She is a former member of the development committee of the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation and the executive and audit committee of Trocaire - the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland

Paulyn has written extensively since her student days. She produced an independent television series entitled "Generations" which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the U.K. and on RTE in Ireland (in 1987 - 1988). She devised and presented a radio documentary series (2005) entitled "Case Stated" which looked at outstanding legal cases that not only changed the lives of the protagonists but changed the lives of all by heralding improvements in access to justice and the vindication of people's constitutional rights through the Courts.