NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF IRELAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Patricia O’Brien, the new Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented her credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Ms. O’Brien has extensive experience of international and legal affairs, and has held a number of senior and legal positions in and out of Ireland. Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. O’Brien worked for the United Nations serving as Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel since 2008, within the office of Legal Affairs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Between 2003 and 2008 Ms. O’Brien served as Legal Adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland. She also served as a Senior Legal Adviser to the Attorney General of Ireland and as Legal Counsellor at the Irish Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels. Between 2003 and 2008, Ms. O’Brien was the Legal Adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, specialising in public international law, human rights law and European Union law. She also served as a Senior Legal Adviser to the Attorney General of Ireland and Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the European Union in Brussels.

Earlier in her career Ms. O’Brien practiced law at the Irish bar between 1979 and 1988, and for one year at the Bar of British Columbia, Canada. Between 1989 and 1992 she held academic positions at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Ms. O’Brien earned a Bachelor of Arts in legal science in 1978 and a Master of Arts in 1987 from Trinity College, Dublin; a Barrister-in-Law from Kings Inns, Dublin, in 1978 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1990.

Ms. O’Brien has three children.


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