‘The destruction and preservation of the records of the Department of External Affairs during the Second World War’ – Dr. Michael Kennedy
The National Archives public events programme for 2021 began with a talk on February 26th by Dr. Michael Kennedy, the Executive Editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP), titled: ‘”The coming generations would reproach us for not taking all the available precautions’’: the destruction and preservation of the records of the Department of External Affairs during the Second World War’. The talk focused on one of the enduring legends in the history of Irish foreign policy in that a large amount of important documents of the Department of External Affairs (now Dept. of Foreign Affairs) were purposely destroyed in May 1940.