Columnist and leader writer for The Irish Times, a Senior Research Fellow adjunct in the School of Politics and International Relations and Deputy Director of the Institute for British-Irish Relations at University College Dublin. Gillespie is also an active member of the EuroMed Media Network, a group of journalists from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa involved in media freedom and best practice issues. His research interests are in European integration and political identities, comparative regionalism, the EuroMed region, Irish-British relations, media and foreign policy.