The Department of Foreign Affairs has released a document, showing an Irish passport from 1940.

The pages from the passport show it was approved by none other than Éamon de Valera.

Mr de Valera was the External Affairs Minister at the time - from 1932 to 1948.

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs

The passport also lists the countires for which it is valid for travel.

These include the United States, Canada and the UK.

It was issued by the Passport Office in Dublin on April 5th 1940, and was valid for just five years.

It has also released these images (below) of an Irish Free State passport, dating back to 1927.

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs

As well as the pages contained within the Free State passport.

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs

And it also has a copy of an early Irish passport from 1920, which has been presented to the National Museum of Ireland.

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs

How times have changed.