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Etain Tannam wrote an opinion piece for the Irish Independent on November 15. She provided an analysis of two recent accounts of the Protocol’s negotiation and of its current signifcance - one by former Irish Ambassador Rory Montgomery and one by former senior UK official, Philip Rycroft. Both lead to the conclusion that the Irish government was very highly constrained in its approach to Brexit and Northern Ireland and given EU orthodoxy in implementing the Single Market and UK red lines, it is doubtful that a better solution was available, or that the Irish government could have lobbied further for flexibility at that time. Follow the link to read the article.

On 12 November Dr David Mitchell (Assistant Professor) and Dr Dong Jin Kim (Senior Research Fellow), as well as doctoral researchers Eugene Lee and Donghyuk Kwon, spoke at an event hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Ireland. Dr Mitchell and Dr Kim spoke about the Northern Ireland peace process. Eugene Lee compared the Irish and Korean peace processes, and Donghyuk Kwon gave an update on peace efforts in Korea. Eugene Lee and Donghyuk Kwon are directors in South Korea’s Ministry of Unification and are doing PhDs in the School of Religion in Belfast.

Etain Tannam was interviewed by the Financial Times for its Brexit Briefing. Dr Tannam was asked to share her thoughts on the Irish government’s delicate role as interlocutor in resolving the Protocol division.

We were delighted to hear the recent announcement that Ms Eimear Friel has been appointed as Ireland’s Ambassador to Latvia. Eimear completed the MPhil in International Peace Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics in 2007. She is pictured with President Levits of Latvia. We would like to offer Eimear our congratulations and wish her every success in her new role.