This weekend we learned that we had lost a valued friend and colleague, Professor Robert Elgie from DCU.

Robert was the Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies and a leading authority in comparative politics. After gaining First Class Honours from Oxford University, he secured his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1992 on ‘The Influence of the French Prime Minister on the Policy making process, 1981-1991’. He swiftly established himself as an expert on presidentialism, particularly semi presidentialism, setting up www.semipresidentialism.com, an essential resource for scholars of presidentialism and semi-presidentialism. He was the author, co-author or editor of 16 books and authored or co-authored 50 journal articles. All members of the board will remember informal but animated discussions about the 2017 French presidential and parliamentary elections after the editorial board meetings.

A member of the Royal Irish Academy from 2017, Robert joined the board of Government and Opposition in 2013 as Reviews Editor. Over the next few years he transformed the nature of review articles published in the journal, introducing many ‘meta-analysis’ review articles, the first of which was Daniel Stockemer in the 52(4) issue. He grew the reviews role and did so in a quietly efficient and effective way.

Robert was very much a key part of the team that is Government and Opposition. He was a valued member of the board, not only providing wise words of counsel, but also (as many of the other tributes to him have pointed out) a ready wit.  He was always generous with his advice, to both senior and junior scholars. His untimely death leaves behind a massive hole, not only for Government and Opposition, but also to the comparative politics profession as a whole. We will miss him. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.