Letter from Maurice Moynihan to Leo T. McCauley (Dublin)

Dear McCauley,
I have today received your letter No. 301/2 of the 22nd instant, and enclosures, regarding the question of the manner in which Ireland should be referred to in official communications and at international conferences.¹ Since the letter is neo-styled, I assume that you have also sent it to other Departments.

Your Department is aware that, for a considerable time, matters concerning the use of the name of the State have been under consideration in this Department. Draft instructions on the subject, prepared here for submissions to the Government, were referred to your Department on the 19th June, 1947, for observations, and your Department's observations were furnished in Boland's minute No. 301/2 of the 3rd July, 1947.² I would, therefore, have expected that this Department would have been given an opportunity of submitting our observations to the Taoiseach and of ascertaining his views and wishes before action affecting the question was taken by the Department of External Affairs.

The circulation to Departments of your Department's memorandum of the 12th instant, accompanying your letter, is, presumably, intended by you for the guidance of officers concerned in the Service generally. That this is your intention seems, indeed, clear from the terms of the letter itself. But, apart from the fact that the Department of Finance is the normal channel for conveying general instructions to the Service, we have no knowledge or record of any Government decision approving the lines of policy indicated in the memorandum.

In the circumstances, it is necessary for me to make a submission to the Taoiseach on the procedure which has been adopted in this matter by the Department of External Affairs.

As to the content of the memorandum accompanying your letter, I think it right to point out at once that the expression 'Irish Republic' has no constitutional or statutory basis whatever. Since evidence of the British desire to bring this expression into use came first to our notice, this Department has held quite definitely the view that, far from being encouraged to use the expression themselves, Irish officials should oppose its use, in any circumstances, by others.