Memorandum by Frederick H. Boland for Éamon de Valera (Dublin) with draft letter on the nomenclature of the name of the state

1. 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. The avoidance of these incorrect terms is particularly important in connection with international conferences, and, as other Departments are taking part in so many of these nowadays, it seems desirable to bring the matter expressly before their minds.
2. A semi-official letter to heads of Departments seemed to us, on the whole, the best way of doing this. You may possibly prefer, however, either that the letter should be sent by the Secretary to the Government or that individual Ministers should issue appropriate instructions to their several Departments.

[enclosure]

Dear -
My Minister is anxious to prevent the use - not only at international Conferences, but in ordinary Departmental files and correspondence here at home - of expressions which are not in accordance with our external position and may prove embarrassing to us on policy grounds. Such expressions are the use of the term 'Dominion' to describe this country, the use of 'Éire' for Ireland, the use of the term 'British Isles' to describe Ireland and Great Britain, of 'Northern Ireland' to describe the six north-eastern counties, and of 'Government of the United Kingdom' where the British Government is meant.

There is no reason for using the term 'Éire' except where the context itself is in Irish. Its use when English or other foreign languages are being employed is undesirable in view of a certain tendency abroad to use the term to denote the area of the twenty-six counties. The expression 'British Isles' is, of course, a complete misnomer and its use should be strongly discouraged. There should be no difficulty in having it replaced, wherever necessary, by Ireland and Great Britain. It is part of our general policy and attitude about Partition to use the terms 'the Six Counties' and 'Great Britain' in preference to the terms 'Northern Ireland' and 'the United Kingdom'. The use of the term 'Dominion' to describe this country has no justification whatever, historically or otherwise. It should never be used.

The use of the term 'Éire' (otherwise than when the context is in Irish), 'Dominion' and 'British Isles' should always be positively objected to as wholly inappropriate. For obvious reasons, we cannot hope to prevent the use of the terms 'Northern Ireland' and 'United Kingdom' in the official documentation of international Conferences, etc., but we should always avoid using them ourselves.

Our Minister would be grateful if your Department would co-operate in securing uniformity of practice on the lines indicated above. He would be glad if the matter could be brought specially to the notice of any officers of your Department nominated to attend international Conferences.