I love The Irish Times. It is a paper I grew up with, a paper my father sold in our village shop in rural Ireland (after having read it himself!). What I also really like is that the paper is owned not by a corporation but an Irish trust, The Irish Times Trust, and that the purpose of trust is to strengthen the newspaper. No News Corp here: no pandering to grievances and conspiracies for profit. The Irish Times is the newspaper of record in Ireland that holds the power structures of the country and beyond to account. This is how it should be in a democratic society: an independent press run by professional journalists with an accountability, governance and democratic culture mission. It is well worth supporting with a subscription (and you get to read the superlative columns of Fintan O’Toole).

In any case, like many Irish academics, I wrote a number of pieces for the Irish Times down the years. This has picked up recently because of the Ukraine crisis: I am grateful for the opportunity to write for an Irish and European audience from the United States. Here are some of the pieces I wrote for them in the last few months:

Delusions on all sides has paved way for Russia-Nato standoff 22 December, 2021.

Putin takes a calculated gamble, 25 February 2022.

War can be ended but peace would be tough for Ukraine to swallow, 12 March 2022.

Talks kindle hope of peace in Ukraine but suspicions remain, 2 April 2022.

Messianic desire in Ukraine, but no Victory Day prize for Putin, 9 May 2022.

Ukraine has become a sacred cause, beyond the bounds of compromise, 4 June 2022.

Bosnia the blueprint for Russian tactics in Donbas, 12 June 2022.