Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) is a public history programme for the study of modern Irish history through diplomacy. DIFP aims to make the history of Irish foreign policy accessible to all and promotes public engagement with the history of Ireland’s international relations. DIFP is a partnership programme of the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

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Document of the day - 5th June

Volume 8
No. 343
Frederick H. Boland (Dublin) to Éamon de Valera (Dublin)

Memorandum and letter, Boland to de Valera
5th June 1947

 I attach a draft of a semi-official letter which I thought of writing to heads of Departments in an effort to secure uniformity of practice as regards the use of terms such as ‘Éire’, the ‘United Kingdom’, the ‘British Isles’, etc. We notice that these, and other equally inappropriate terms, are sometimes employed by other Departments which, of course, unless the fact is expressly brought to their notice, can hardly be expected to be as alive as this Department would be to the prejudicial effects of their use.