Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) is a public history project 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 between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Royal Irish Academy and the National Archives of Ireland. It was established on the basis of a commitment in the 1996 White Paper on Irish foreign policy to publish 'a series of foreign policy documents of historic interest' in order to 'encourage and assist greater academic interest in the study of Irish foreign policy'.
Since its establishment in 1997 DIFP has published eleven hard copy volumes of documents, covering discrete periods from 1919 to 1961. The published documents are primarily selected from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade collection retained in the National Archives of Ireland, along with the archives of other government departments and the papers of relevant individuals retained in other repositories. DIFP volumes are published on a biennial basis. DIFP maintains a strong public profile nationally and internationally. Alongside the series of documents that form the core of the project, DIFP has also developed a number of ancillary projects on the history of Ireland's international relations, copies of which are retained here.
