Academic biography

Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Professor of Politics at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University (DCU) where he lectures on post-Soviet politics, unrecognised states, Irish studies and foreign policy.

Professor Ó Beacháin has twice been awarded the accolade “Champion of European Research” by Ireland’s National Support Network for FP7 and Horizon2020. The citations read that these researchers 'are deemed to have reached the pinnacle of the European Research System’. In 2022, he was awarded the President’s Research Award for best researcher in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Education.

Professor Ó Beacháin has been a core member or principal investigator in several multimillion euro EU-funded projects. He is also a core member of a €1million research project devoted to “de facto states”, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway. He has conducted research in every post-Soviet state and in each of the protracted conflict zones.

Professor Ó Beacháin’s monograph From Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press) was the 2019 recipient of the Political Studies Association of Ireland's Brian Farrell prize for book of the year.

Other books include The Colour Revolutions in the Former Soviet Republics: Successes and Failures (with Abel Polese, Routledge, 2010), Destiny of the Soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA 1926-1973, (Gill and Macmillan, 2010), Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe after EU Membership: Happy Ever After? (with Vera Sheridan and Sabina Stan, Routledge, 2012), Political Communication in Ireland (with Mark O'Brien, Liverpool University Press 2014) and From Whence I Came: The Kennedy Legacy, Ireland and America (with Brian Murphy, Merrion Press, 2021).

His latest book is Unfinished Empire: Russian Imperialism in Ukraine and the Near Abroad (Agenda, 2025).