Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Associate Professor at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University where he lectures on post-Soviet politics, unrecognised states and Irish politics. His books related to Ireland include “Destiny of the Soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA 1926-1973”, “Political Communication in Ireland” (co-editor with Mark O’Brien) and “From Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland”, which is the 2019 recipient of the book of the year award from the Political Studies Association of Ireland. He has twice (2012 and 2016) been awarded the accolade “Champion of European Research” by Ireland’s National Support Network for FP7 and Horizon2020 in award ceremonies hosted by President Michael D. Higgins. The citation reads that ‘as leaders of major research projects in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Development [these] researchers … are deemed to have reached the pinnacle of the European Research System’.