Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (born 26 May 1951) is a former Fine Gael politician who served for over twenty years in the Oireachtas as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Clare and as a Senator.
Born Madeleine Taylor in Kilkee, County Clare, she was educated at the Convent of Mercy Secondary School in Kilrush, and at University College Galway, graduating with a BA, HDipEd, and LLB. Working as a teacher, she became a founder member of Young Fine Gael in 1977, and Joint Honorary Secretary of Fine Gael from 1979–82, the first woman officer in the party.
She was elected to Dáil Éireann on her first attempt, at the 1981 general election, succeeding her father Frank Taylor, who had been a TD from 1969. County Clare's first-ever female TD, she took her seat in the 22nd Dáil as Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald was elected Taoiseach, heading a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government.
The government fell in January 1982 when it was defeated in a vote on the budget, and at the February 1982 general election Taylor-Quinn lost her seat to Fine Gael's other candidate, Donal Carey. She was then elected to the 16th Seanad Éireann on the Cultural and Educational Panel.
She regained her Dáil seat later that year, at the November 1982 general election, and was re-elected at the 1987 and 1989 general elections. She lost her seat at the 1992 general election, when Labour's Moosajee Bhamjee was elected in Clare, becoming Ireland's first Muslim TD. She stood again at the 1997 and 2002 elections, but was defeated by a narrow margin on both occasions.
After her Dáil defeat in 1992, Taylor-Quinn was elected to the Seanad Éireann, again by the Cultural and Educational Panel, which re-elected her in 1997 to the 21st Seanad. She was defeated in the 2002 Seanad elections, following a decision by Fine Gael to give party nominations to candidates from constituencies without a Fine Gael TD, coming 8th on the 6-seat panel.[1] She also stood as a Fine Gael candidate in the 2004 European Parliament election, for the North–West constituency. She polled particularly well in County Clare, with over 22,000 first preferences, the highest vote ever polled by any candidate in County Clare. Overall her 41,570 first preferences transferred well to Jim Higgins to get a Fine Gael seat in the new constituency, and ensuring Fine Gael beat Fianna Fáil in a national election for the first time since 1927. She again contested stood in Clare in the Irish general election, 2007, winning 3,592 first preferences. Although she wasn't elected, Fine Gael did win two of the four seats in the constituency.
In the Dáil, she has served at various times as her party's spokesperson on Tourism, the Marine and Defence. She has held a number of frontbench positions in the Seanad, including Foreign affairs, Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht & the Islands, Justice, Law Reform and Defence and also served as Deputy Opposition Leader. She has previously been a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committees on the Marriage Breakdown Committee; Joint Oireachtas Committee on Women's Rights and was Chairperson of the Select Committee on Judicial Separation.
Taylor-Quinn was a member of Clare County Council from 1979 to 2009. She is a former Mayor of County Clare (Chairperson of the County Council) (2008–09), and was the first Fine Gael Mayor in Clare since the foundation of the Irish State. She was also the Fine Gael group leader on Clare County Council until 2009. She is married to George Quinn, and has two sons.
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