Hot Press Meets Oisin Quinn

Oisin Quinn, recently elected 334th Lord Mayor of Dublin, arrives into the lengthy dining hall of the Mansion House on a swelteringly hot July afternoon wearing his chains of office. Once the Hot Press photos are finished, he’s visibly relieved to take them off. It’s really not a day for weighty bling.

“These are just replicas,” he explains. “The real chains are actually much heavier. They’re in the City Museum under City Hall, which is where they keep a lot of the paraphernalia of the Lord Mayor. Things like old gowns, tricorder hats, and the Lord Mayor’s sword, which is pretty cool. That was presented by Henry of Bolingbroke when he was crowned King Henry IV of England in the 14th century.”
Born in London in 1968, the affable, mild-mannered Oisín is the eldest son of multi-millionaire businessman Lochlann Quinn, and the nephew of the current Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn.
Educated in Castleknock, UCD and King’s Inns, he works as a senior counsel, specializing in employment law. Married with three children, he was elected to Dublin City Council in 2004 (and again in 2009). He ran as a Labour candidate for Dáil Eireann in Dun Laoghaire in 2007 without success.
He still has political ambitions, however, and has taken a year away from his legal work to concentrate on his role as Dublin’s First Citizen.

OLAF TYARANSEN: What’s your earliest memory?
OISÍN QUINN: I can remember two elderly ladies who lived in Seaview Terrace, where I grew up for a couple of years in the early ’70s. Mum and Dad rented the basement as a flat. So my actual earliest visual memory is going into the room with one of them in the bed, Mrs. Shaw. It made an impression. I don’t know why.
You were born in London, weren’t you?
Yeah. In the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson All Women’s Hospital in 1968. My dad was an accountant – he did commerce in UCD, went on to become an accountant, and went to work for Arthur Andersen [accounting firm] in London. I was born while Mum and Dad were over there. They came back in 1969 so I was there for about six months. Mum was a teacher. She probably finished working as a teacher in the early ’70s.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in law?
I used to love shows like Rumpole, Sherlock Holmes and crime dramas and courtroom kind of stuff, and I was into debating. I just loved the whole atmosphere in court.
I presume you were a good student.
I was reasonably studious. I wasn’t in the cool crew. I did quite well in my exams. I did well in maths and applied maths and physics, those kind of subjects. I wasn’t brilliant at languages.
You were a boarder?
It’s a slightly usual environment, in a way. I actually liked it, but I could see how it wasn’t for everyone. And at no stage would myself or my wife feel we would ever send one of our kids to boarding school.
Even though you were boarding, your family lived in the same city?
Yeah. Seaview Terrace is in Donnybrook – Mum and Dad rented there for about a year. Then they bought a house in a cul-de-sac in Ballsbridge called St. Alban’s Park. We were there for about 10 years. And then about 1980, they ended up buying the house at Seaview Terrace. My parents are still there.
Was it a religious household?
No. I mean we were Catholics and we would go to mass. But there was no picture of a Pope on the wall or anything like that.
Was there a drugs subculture in Castleknock?
Now I wasn’t aware of this at the time, but three or four years before I finished there was a little bit of a drug problem, apparently, in the school when I was in second or third year. There were about 60 in my year and I would be confident to say that there wasn’t a drugs issue at all in my year. And again, no one had a secret stash of drink in the school.
Can you remember the first time you got drunk?
Yeah. It was celebrating the Inter Cert. We went to a pub called Rice’s. It would have been before the Stephen’s Green Centre was developed, and I think I had three or four pints of Smithwick’s – this sounds like a gross drink – with some raspberry thing poured on the top. We got the bus back to school ­– I think it was the 66 – and we were all up at the top and I know I wouldn’t normally have been singing in public save for if I’ve had a couple of drinks (laughs).
Have you ever smoked a joint?
I have smoked a joint, yeah. I’m trying to think. Once in France when I was inter-railing, which would have been in between my two years in the King’s Inns. And I think that’s probably it.
Did you enjoy it?
Because I didn’t actually smoke – this is going to sound like a Bill Clinton answer – but I’m not sure I was inhaling properly (laughs). It was a joint that was being passed around. If it had an effect it could have only been pleasant – but that could have been because of the context in which I was having it!
What about women? Access must have been difficult in an all-male boarding school?
Just to show you how male it was…I did the school play. They used to team up with Mount Sackville for school plays, and then one year – a couple of years ahead of me – it just all went nuts. So they said from then on, when they did plays, the boys would play the female parts. One year I played a male part and, for the other, I played the vicar’s wife.
Have you ever had a gay experience?
No, I didn’t have any gay experiences. I never had a sense that something like that…
Not even in an all-male boarding school full of horny teenagers?
I remember being in the toilets one time, and being in one of the cubicles and a guy did go by and open the door. He immediately said, “Oh sorry,” and proceeded on, but I thought afterwards that it was a bit odd because I was in a line of about 5 or 6 cubicles and the place was virtually empty. It struck me afterwards…why would somebody check the one door that someone’s using? So I don’t know if there was stuff happening. There obviously would have been gay guys in the class and they would’ve been going through a period of time when they were adjusting to that. A friend of mine from school, in the year ahead, was gay, but he only came out in college.
What age were you when you lost your virginity?
Nineteen, I think.
Were you quite conservative as a teenager?
I probably was. Not in the sense of political views, but as a person, yeah. If I was in a group of people, I would have been the one saying, “Let’s not do that.” Let’s not hang the guy out the window by his ankles. Let’s turn the music off. And I think, possibly that, when I wasn’t saying stuff, that was probably the vibe I gave off. I was never really involved in anything wild that was happening. I think my style would have been on the slightly diplomatic side!
Your father Lochlann Quinn is extremely wealthy. Were you conscious of this growing up?
He was an accountant in Arthur Andersen – that’s the kind of job you’ll do well at. Then he moved to work with Martin Naughton and Glen Dimplex, and in terms of finance, this is where he became a lot more successful. But that really kicked off in the late ‘80s /early ‘90s. I was in college by then. To be honest with you, it didn’t remotely change him. He was able to buy a vineyard in France with Mum. He was able to work on developing the Merrion Hotel, which he really enjoyed as a project. Giving money to UCD for the Quinn Business School and involving himself in the National Gallery – he’s had the opportunity to do those kinds of things but, fundamentally, someone like Dad doesn’t change.
Were you politically aware as a teen?
Yeah. I certainly remember that year-and-a-half in the ’80s where there were three general elections and you had this big tussle going on between Haughey and Fitzgerald. And you had Thatcher and Reagan and then, a little later in the ‘80s, you had Gorbachev. I certainly remember having an interest in that sort of stuff. When I was home from school, I would sit down in the TV room with Mum and Dad and happily watch Today Tonight.
Your uncle is [Education Minister] Ruairí Quinn…
He’s a younger brother of Dad’s. I can remember one of those elections in the ‘80s canvassing for Ruairî. I must have been off school or something.
Has it been a help or a hindrance in your own political career having such a high profile politician as your uncle?
I would say a help. Number one, he knows politics and he knows how it works – and so it seems accessible. Without Ruairi, I might not have commited to getting involved. After the ’97 government ended, he effectively became party leader within a year. And if you’re the party leader’s nephew it kind of gives people a point of reference: “Oh yeah, you’re so and so.” So that’s kind of helpful, generally.
You’ve been a councillor since 2004 and you also stood unsuccessfully in the 2007 general election…
I ran for the local elections in Rathmines in 2004. I got elected by us winning an extra seat. The next general election was in 2007 and Pat Rabbitte was the leader. The area I was in was Dublin South-East, but there was no room there. Dun Laoghaire was a 5-seater then, and it had been Niamh Breathnach and Eamon Gilmore. But Niamh wasn’t going to run so the party said, “We need to run a second candidate in Dun Laoghaire.”
How did you do?
I did OK. The pitch was a little like this: Labour will only win two seats if there is a national swing – because Dun Laoghaire is one of those swing constituencies. So this is what was put to me. They said, “Look, if you run, put yourself in position to catch a middle class swing. Put your boat out and your sail up – and when the wind blows you might catch it.” I said fair enough. The wind didn’t blow. In fact, in 2007 we stood completely still. I wasn’t close to winning a second seat, to be honest with you.
Did you enjoy the experience?
I was a little bruised afterwards but it was great fun working with the team – friends and family and some local party people. It was very physical, with a lot of walking around as opposed to sitting in work or standing in court. It’s a really big constituency, Booterstown all the way down to Bray.
As a barrister, you must be quite competitive. Do you always like to win?
You do. I spend much more time thinking about a case I’ve lost, as opposed to a case I’ve won. If you win a tough case you might go out and celebrate with the client and the solicitor the following weekend. Otherwise you don’t think too much about it.
Are legal fees too high in this country?
I would say in a lot of areas they probably are. It’s one of the issues that is getting addressed at the moment. A bit slowly, maybe, but it is getting addressed.
Any regrets about going into law?
No. The only thing is that I never ended up doing crime. I did one criminal case. The thing in Dublin is you can’t really do crime and civil stuff – you really have to plump for one or the other. With crime – the rules of evidence, the whole thing – you’ve got to immerse yourself in it because with a jury, there’s a lot at stake. You’ve got to know what you’re doing. You can’t dabble in crime, if I can put it like that.
What do you hope to achieve in your time as Lord Mayor?
It’s a year, which is short. I’m really conscious of how fast it’s going to go. And it’s actually a short year because the local election is next year, a little bit early – so it’s actually a 50-week year. Before I started, I must have had 70 one-to-ones with people. I was picked by my group in April. And once I was picked by the Labour group, Fine Gael had already agreed to support the candidate. So I knew from April, bar treachery from a very high level, that I was going to get it. Though you can never completely rule out treachery of a high level (laughs).
What have you planned?
I settled on three themes. One was to promote Dublin as a gateway to Europe for international business. Dublin is in a great position to do that. You look at all these social media companies that are here – Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. They’re already here and it’s not just a footprint, they’re big. They’re here because something is working for them: I think we need to spread that message. Dublin really has a great chance to go from a 1 million city to a 2 million city. It offers a great quality of life – lovely bay, lovely mountains, great culture.
Sorry, do you mean population-wise?
Yeah. In increasing urbanization, you’ve got to have a good city on the playing pitch of cities. At 1 million we’re small, we need to get a little bit bigger. But we’re English speaking, we’re a capital city, we’re in the Eurozone, with a young, well educated workforce. Those are built-in advantages that can’t be lost. We’re unique. There’s no other English-speaking capital city in the Eurozone – and London is unlikely to join the list.
What does that mean in practice?
It means building a sustainable city – developing the docklands, making sure there is a good quality of life for people while they’re here. So I’m really trying to promote sport, especially the triathlon, which uses the bay and the mountains. I’m trying to bring a big international triathlon to Dublin for the August bank holiday next year. People can work hard and be living in the city, but within 20 minutes on your bike you can be in the mountains or swimming in the bay.
Will you be doing the triathlon yourself?
I’m going to do the Dublin City triathlon in four weeks. That’s a standard Olympic distance triathlon, in the Liffey and in Phoenix Park. I’m going do a bit of training for that.
Are you a keep-fit kind of guy?
Not really. I injured my back about 6 years ago and it was probably the best thing that happened. I was really out of shape, playing a bit of tennis and five-a-side football, not really looking after myself and my back was probably waiting to go because of bad posture and all the rest of it. Back went and the advice was, ‘do physio and lose a bit of weight’. Then I started swimming and I was doing a few swimming classes which tended to be triathlon swimming classes. And then I thought, maybe I’ll just push it out a little bit.
What’s number two?
To make the city centre more family friendly. At the moment, the city centre is a cool place to go for a night out if you’re young, or it’s interesting if you’re a little bit older and you want to get into the culture and the literary stuff. But we’ve also got to make it a little bit better from a family-friendly point of view.
Number three?
Number three is the really important one and no city has really cracked it. Promoting leadership in Dublin’s non-Irish. The key thing is, we have over 100,000 people in the city area…and more than 20% overall if you take the one million population who describe themselves in the census as non-Irish. Where are those people involved in the city? Senior Guards, senior judges, politicians…they all look the same. A city that is going to be successful has to have everyone at the table, arguing their case. As a Muslim shop keeper down on South Circular Road, you should be banging on the door giving out about rates or bins not being collected – the same as everybody else. If you’re not happy, run for the local council.
And become Lord Mayor!
In 20 years time, whoever the Mayor is, maybe you’ll find his or her parents were from China, maybe the Garda Commissioner’s parents were from Africa or India. American cities can be quite good at that. On the other hand, countries that people thought were progressive have made a bit of a mess of it recently – places like France, Sweden and the Netherlands. We have local elections next year. Anyone living in the city can vote in the local election. So it’s about trying to make sure that everyone is at the table to argue their case.
You’re taking a year away from your legal practice to do this.
Yeah. As a barrister, you can marshal your own time, and taking a year off is do-able. Because I was selected in April, I didn’t leave anyone in the lurch. I’ve been a barrister for 21 years and, as I was saying to my wife, “Look, you do Lord Mayor for one year and you remember loads of it.” I can’t even remember most of my cases from last year. So it’s a one-off opportunity and it’s worth doing.
A lot of people would say that Labour have sold out their core principles during this stint in government. Would you agree?
No, I wouldn’t. One thing they’ve done that they don’t really get much credit for is keeping a reasonable level of social stability. Protecting core social welfare rates, protecting public employment in terms of jobs and pensions – albeit wages and pensions have been reduced. They haven’t had to do what Greece and Portugal are going to have to do – letting people go. Having said that, if you’ve got a job in the public sector and you borrowed a mortgage right out to the edge, getting chopped 6 or 7 % puts you on the line – so people are pretty pissed off. There probably isn’t another country in Europe that has had to go through a bailout that hasn’t had major disruption. The thing is, if you have teachers going on strike, or nurses or guards, the people who need the most suffer the most. There is credit due, in my view, for navigating our way through this, while keeping cohesion that protects people who need to rely on public services. Now, have they done enough to explain what they’re doing? If the captain says, “I’ve taken over this boat and I’ll tell you where we’re heading,” it’s a little bit more palatable.So that needs to be done. But it’s not a situation where Labour have just sold out.
What was your reaction to the Anglo tapes?
It didn’t really surprise me. One of my brothers had worked in Anglo so I would have had a sense that this was the way they were treating the whole thing. When you see it right in your face, it’s pretty obnoxious. You listen to the Enron tapes…if you take executives divorced from reality and listen to their conversations… (shrugs).
Do you think the senior executives should be prosecuted for this?
Yeah. I would be frustrated at the amount of time it is taking just to get to grips with this – and I don’t mean in terms of an inquiry. You know, at the end of an inquiry, you’re told they shouldn’t have lent so much money, they overstated things… fine. But that’s not the same as having them hauled up before a court where you’re facing a punishment. If you look at Enron, Kenny Lay was one of the Bush family’s biggest backers. He was in an orange jumpsuit within days, and he was in jail within a year, and he died of a heart attack while in there. They deal pretty swiftly with egregious behavior over there. Dragging it out doesn’t do anybody any favours. To put it in context, when Veronica Guerin was shot there was a very swift response from government. Legislation passed quickly, CAB was set up quickly. Top people were put into CAB ­– a mix of revenue people, legal people and top gardaí – and guys started having assets cleaned out. I would have thought people expected that level of response.
What is your view on the Seanad?
I am in favour of abolishing the Seanad. I think Ireland can cope with a one-house system. In ways, the government haven’t stepped up to the mark. Even without a constitutional referendum or major legislation, there is a lot they could do to improve the way the Dáil works and the way the committees work.
What was your take on the ‘Lapgate’ incident?
A really, really bad advertisement for politics and the Dáil. They knew the eyes of the country, and even of people outside of Ireland, were on that Bill – there were TV crews over from networks and other countries. To run a debate until 5am when you have a bar serving drink, that sort of carry-on is, unfortunately, almost playing up to a stereotype.
Do you think there should be a bar in the Dáil?
I don’t see why the private members need a private bar. I think maybe a restaurant that can serve drink and a bar for visitors that would close at regular hours.
How do you think the abortion issue was handled this time around?
Overall you would give credit to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste for getting the legislation done. There were some risks in it. Fine Gael took some collateral hits. Labour stayed together and I think you have to give them credit for that.
Where do you stand on gay marriage?
I think we should just legislate for it. Or if we need to, god forbid, have another referendum. There should be no difference there, in my view.
As Lord Mayor of Dublin, can you do anything about the ridiculous 30kph speed limit in parts of the city?
You mean the occasional 30kph speed limit along the quays? People feel a bit frustrated about the 30kph, as opposed to a more normal one of 50kph. With a speed limit – I think everyone in Ireland just adds a little bit on. So I think if you want people to drive 40kph, you have to tell them the speed limit is 30kph. If you tell them it’s 50kph, the odd guy will drive 60kph. I think between the speed limit and the discretion the guards are using, it has calmed the quays down a bit.
Would you run for the Dáil again?
I probably would, but at the moment I’m 100% focused on this.
Do you have a motto in life?
Work hard and build good relationships. That’s the kind of approach I try to use in my working life anyway.