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School of Law and Government
Donnacha

LawGov Research Carnival #4: Professor Donnacha Ó Beacháin

Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Professor at the School of Law and Government, where he lectures on the post-Soviet region, unrecognised states and Irish politics/foreign policy.

He was lead researcher in the €3.6million FP7/Marie Curie Initial Training Network in Post-Soviet Tensions (2013-2017). Professor Ó Beacháin was also Principal Investigator in the €3.8million Horizon2020 project on the Caspian region (2015-2019). These consortia, involving 19 partners, were coordinated by the International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at DCU.

As a result of the major multi-million EU-funded projects Professor Ó Beacháin has helped bring to DCU, cumulatively valued at almost €8million, he has created strong institutional links for Irish academia with major universities across the globe.

In 2013 Professor Ó Beacháin was awarded the accolade “Champion of European Research” for 2013 by Ireland’s National Support Network for FP7. The award ceremony was hosted by President Michael D. Higgins. In 2017 Professor Ó Beacháin was again awarded the accolade “Champion of European Research”, this time from Ireland’s National Support Network for Horizon2020. The award ceremony was hosted by the Minister of State for Training and Skills. The citations read 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’.

The Irish Research Council showcased Professor Ó Beacháin’s work in a specially commissioned book produced a book entitled Creating Ireland: Research and the Role of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which featured the work of what it considered the top eight researchers.

Professor Ó Beacháin is currently a core member of the EU-funded projects LABOUR, SHADOW and NEW MARKETS (all H2020 MSCA RISE) and MARKETS (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions European Training Network) which are primarily focussed on the post-Soviet space and collectively valued at more than €7million. He is also a Core Team Member of a €1million research project devoted to the “dynamics of de facto state patron-client relation”, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway.    

Professor Ó Beacháin’s books include edited volumes such as The Colour Revolutions in the Former Soviet Republics: Successes and Failures (with Abel Polese, Routledge),  Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe after EU Membership: Happy Ever After? (with Vera Sheridan and Sabina Stan, Routledge) and Political Communication in Ireland (with Mark O’Brien, Liverpool University Press).

Professor Ó Beacháin’s monographs include Destiny of the Soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA, (Gill and Macmillan) and From Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press), which was the 2019 winner of the Brian Farrell prize awarded by the Political Studies Association of Ireland for the best book in political science.

Professor Ó Beacháin’s most recent book From whence I came: the Kennedy legacy, Ireland and America (Merrion / Irish Academic Press, 2020) is edited with Brian Murphy of Technological University Dublin. The book was launched on 15 March 2021 by the Taoiseach as part of the virtual 2021 St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, organised by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Consulate General of Ireland in Boston, and Embassy of Ireland, USA. The event featured a panel discussion on the Kennedy legacy and Ireland with Samantha Power, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations appointed by President Biden to head USAID, Richard Neal, Chairman, US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Joe Kennedy III, former Massachusetts Congressman, and Dr Alison Meagher, Department of Foreign Affairs. 

He is currently under contract with Routledge to publish another a monograph entitled The Politics of Unrecognised States.

Twitter: @DonnachaDCU

DCU Profile page: https://www.dcu.ie/lawandgovernment/people/donnacha-o-beachain

Doras Profile page: http://doras.dcu.ie/view/people/=D3_Beach=E1in=3ADonnacha=3A=3A.html

Personal Page: http://donnachaobeachain.com/