The 1996 White Paper on Irish Foreign Policy, ‘Challenges and Opportunities Abroad’ announced (paragraph 16:48) that the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Irish Academy would jointly establish a series of volumes of documents on Irish foreign policy.
The Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) project commenced operation at the RIA in the summer of 1997 and began the production of a multi-volume documentary history of Ireland’s foreign relations from 1919 using material contained in the archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach (now deposited in the National Archives) as well as items from other relevant collections.
The aim of the DIFP series is to make available, in an organised and accessible manner, to people who may not be in a position easily to consult the National Archives, documents from the archived files of government departments relating to Irish foreign policy, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs. Through its publications the project also aims to promote the wider use by the public of the Irish foreign policy archive. DIFP is a public resource for the study of the history of Irish foreign policy and 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. It is a partnership programme of the RIA, the National Archives, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.