These First Day Covers are part of my general Irish collection. They were issued to commemorate Irish historical events and sites, famous Irish people and diaspora, Irish culture and various Irish institutions and societies.
1937
Constitution Day
Issued 29th December 1937
Charles F. Bourke First Day Cover
Charles F. Bourke from Waterford is widely regarded as the first provider of printed Irish cachets. The Constitution Day cachet below was the first of these issues. Enclosed within is an order form for his 1938 St. Patrick´s Day cachets (details below) .
Charles F. Bourke St. Patrick´s Day Cachets
These covers were a new idea and were unique in several respects. They were addressed in both Irish and English, were postmarked on St. Patrick´s Day 17th March and contained a sprig of shamrock and a bilingual greeting card. The addressing of all the covers was done by his mother Clare Bourke a fluent Irish speaker and writer. These covers were sent out mostly to the United States, Canada and Australia from 1935 to 1940. There was a break of seven years when Charles F. Bourke served in the Irish Army. They resumed in 1947 and continued until 1953.
1940 St. Patrick´s Day Cachet
1944
Centenary of the Death of Edmund Ignatius Rice
Issued 29th August 1944
1946
Davitt/Parnell
Issued 16th September 1946
1949
Republic Ireland
Issued 21st November 1949
An interesting footnote to the recipient of this First Day Cover, Professor J. J. Auchmuty, Faculty of Arts, Farouk University, Alexandria, Egypt. He was born in Portadown, County Armagh to a Church of Ireland Clergyman James Wilson Auchmuty. J. J. Auchmuty graduated from Trinity College and lectured here from 1938 to 1943. Due to poor eyesight, he was unable to join the army at the outbreak of the Second World War. However he was recruited by M16 and performed intelligence work and pro-cultural propaganda in Ireland. At the end of the war Auchmuty decided to leave Ireland to avoid being interred for working on non-Irish interests. He went to work as a Professor of History at the Farouk University, teaching and continuing his work of political reporting and propaganda until the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952. British intelligence then found him a position as a Senior Lecturer in History in New South Wales University of Technology. He no longer worked on intelligence operations.
1953
150th Anniversary of the Death of Robert Emmet
Issued 21st September 1953
Staehle Cachet
1954
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1954
Ross Castle, Killarney, County Kerry: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Ross Castle is a 15th century tower house on the edge of Lough Leane in the Killarney National Park, County Kerry. It was built in the late 15th century by the local ruling clan, the O´Donoughues Mór (Ross though ownership changed hands during the Second Desmond Rebellion of the 1580s to the clan of the McCarthy Mór. He then leased the castle and lands to Sir Valentine Browne ancestor of the Earls of Kenmare. The castle was amongst the last to surrender to Oliver Cromwell´s Roundheads during the Irish Confederate Wars. Lord Muskerry (McCarthy) held the castle against Edmond Ludlow who marched on Ross Castle with 4,000-foot soldiers and 200 horses. The stronghold was only taken when artillery was brought by boat via the River Luane. At the end of the wars, the Browne’s were able to show that their heir was too young to have taken part in the rebellion and managed to retain their lands. By about 1688, the Brownes had erected a mansion house near the castle but their support of King James II after the Glorious Revolution caused them to be exiled. Ross Castle became a military barracks and remained so until the early 19th century. The Brownes did not return to live at Ross Castle, instead they built Kenmare House near Killarney. Ross Castle was taken into the care of the state in 1970. It was in a very ruinous condition at the time and has since undergone extensive conservation and restoration. It is now open to the public.
Marian Year
Issued 24th May 1954
Staehle Cachet
Commemorating the Centenary of the Catholic University of Ireland
Under the Rectorship of Cardinal Newman
Issued 19th July 1954
Staehle Cachet
1955
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1955
Kilkenny Castle: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Kilkenny Castle is situated in the heart of Kilkenny Town. The first castle was constructed here in the Anglo-Norman period by Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare. It was replaced by a stone structure in 1192 by William Marshal. The Butler family bought the castle in 1391 and it became their seat for well over the next 500 years. During the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s, the Protestant Butlers were on the side of King Charles I. However, Catholic rebels captured Kilkenny Castle and it was besieged by Cromwell during his conquest of Ireland. Following his return from exile in 1661, Butler remodelled the medieval castle as a more modern edifice. The Butler family increasingly struggled to raise the necessary revenue to keep the castle maintained. When James Butler the 21st Earl of Ormonde died in 1919, huge amounts of death duty meant that the castle´s future was in jeopardy. It was besieged by the Irish Free State army during the Irish Civil War in 1922 and severely damaged. The Butlers moved to London in 1935 abandoning the castle. Kilkenny castle was eventually sold in 1967 to the Castle Restoration Committee for a ceremonial fifty pounds which saw a huge amount of restoration and maintenance take place and Kilkenny Castle is now open for visitors.
1956
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1956
Ferricarrig Castle, County Wexford: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Ferrycarrig Castle located outside of Wexford Town on the Enniscorthy Road was one of the earliest Norman Castles to be built in the country and the first Norman stronghold in Ireland. The castle was erected by Robert Fitz Stephen in 1169 in order to keep watch over the River Slaney. The castle that was built in 1169 no longer exists. By the early 14th century, the castle is recorded as ruinous. A number of land sales recorded in the 15th and 16th centuries show the castle still remaining as late as 1587. The final destruction of the castle is likely to have resulted from quarrying in the 18th and 19th centuries for use in buildings such as Wexford Bridge in the 1790s. The ruins of the original castle now lie beneath the round tower on the south bank of the river which was actually built as a memorial for those who had died in the Crimean War (1853-1856). The tower house that can be seen today and is depicted on the Staehle Cachet was built in the 1400s by the Roche family whose descendants had arrived in County Wexford during the initial Norman invasion of 1169. The structure was built to protect ferries and other boats from roaming rebels and bandits. The Roches lost their titles and lands in the early 1600s in the Cromwellian invasion and following plantation.
Commodore John Barry-Unveiling of Statue
Issued 16th September 1956
1957
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1957
Donegal Castle: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Donegal Castle situated in Donegal Town was constructed in the mid-15th century around 1474 by Red Hugh O´Donnell I, a powerful chieftain and served as a fortified residence and a symbol of the O´Donnell´s power and authority. During its early years, the castle witnessed the complexities of Gaelic politics, marked by alliances and conflicts with neighbouring clans and the English Crown. Notably, the O´Donnell´s were central figures in the resistance against English encroachment which was intensifying during the Tudor Conquest of Ireland. The turning point in the castle´s history came in 1607 after the Flight of the Earls when many Gaelic aristocrats including Red Hugh O´Donnell II fled Ireland following their defeat in the Nine Years War against English rule. In 1611, shortly after the Flight of the Earls, Donegal Castle was granted to an English Captain Sir Basil Brooke as part of the Plantation of Ulster. The Brooke family retained ownership of Donegal Castle until the 1670s. It was then that they sold the estate to the Gore family who would later become the Earls of Arran. The Gores owned the castle until the late 19th century with the castle largely neglected and partially in ruins during this period. In a move to preserve the historical structure, the 5th Earl of Arran transferred ownership of the castle in 1898 to the Office of Public Works. Restoration initiatives particularly extensive ones in the 1990s have since revitalised Donegal Castle allowing it to serve as a historical monument open to the public.
Centenary of the Birth of John Redmond
Issued 11th June 1957
Staehle Cachet
Centenary of the Birth of Tomas O´Criomhthain
Issued 1st July 1957
Staehle Cachet
300th Anniversary of the Death of Father Luke Wadding
Issued 25th November 1957
1958
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1958
Rathmacknee Castle, County Wexford-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Rathmacknee Castle is a tower house located in southeast County Wexford. It is believed to have been built by John Rossiter who was made seneschal of the Liberty of Wexford in 1415. The Rossiters remained Catholic after the Reformation but stayed loyal to the monarchy and continued to hold their lands. Colonel Thomas Rossiter fought against Oliver Cromwell at Wexford in the Irish Confederate Wars and the castle and lands were confiscated in 1654. Rathmacknee Castle remained occupied until the 1760s. In the 19th century, it was restored by its owner Hamilton Knox Grogan Morgan.
Centenary of the Death of Mother Mary Aikenhead
Issued 20th July 1958
Centenary of the Birth of Thomas Clarke
Issued 28th July 1958
Staehle Cachet
New Irish Constitution
Issued 29th December 1958
Staehle Cachet
1959
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1959
Cahir Castle, County Tipperary: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Cahir Castle is sited on an island in the River Suir, now part of Cahir Town Centre, County Tipperary. The castle was situated in or near an earlier native fortification as a cathair (stone fort) which gave its name to the place. In 1192, this area of Ireland was granted to Philip Worchester who started building a castle here in the early 13th century. He was succeeded by his nephew William Worchester. The Worchester’s married into the De Birmingham family who held the castle until 1375 when it was granted to James, 3rd Earl of Ormond who was head of the Butler family. Cahir Castle apart from a few short episodes remained a Butler castle for the next six hundred years. Most of the existing castle was built in the 15th century although there are some later 18th century additions to the castle easily recognisable as they are built in red sandstone.
Cahir Castle was said to be the most impressive castle in Ireland. It was taken by force only once in 1599 when Queen Elizabeth I sent the Earl of Sussex over to Ireland to defeat Hugh O´Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The successful 3-day siege of Cahir Castle was part of this campaign but the Earl of Sussex did not have much luck with Hugh O´Neill. On his return to London, the queen had him imprisoned in the Tower where he was executed two years later. Cahir Castle was subsequently handed back to the Butlers. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell arrived in Cahir. The Butlers surrendered and handed over the keys of the castle. They were good negotiators and 12 years later regained control of the castle. When the era of medieval castles concluded, the Butlers built a mansion in Cahir Town Centre where they resided from then on. The castle remained in their possession until 1961 when the last of the family died without any heirs. Cahir Castle was purchased by the State and became a National Monument in 1964. The castle was beautifully restored and houses pieces of genuine medieval furniture. The castle served as a film location for the 1981 movie Excalibur which tells the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. It also featured in the films, Barry Lyndon (1975) and the Last Duel (2021).
Bi-Centenary of the Guinness Brewery
Issued 20th July 1959
In 1755, Arthur Guinness inherited 100 pounds from his godfather Archbishop Price and used the money to lease a brewery in Leixlip, County Kildare. He brewed only ale at the time and by 1759, he had made enough money to rent the larger and disused St. James´s Gate Brewery in Dublin, signing a 9,000-year lease at 45 pounds per year. That signature is still printed on every can and bottle of Guinness. Arthur built up a successful business and began exporting beer to England by 1769. In the 1770s, he began brewing porter (stout). This was different from ale as it was brewed from roasted barley, giving it a rich dark colour and aroma. By 1799, the brewery stopped brewing ales to focus solely on porter which was brewed in different categories including single stout, double or extra stout and foreign stout named West India Porter which they exported. When Arthur Guinness passed away in 1803, the brewery was producing 20,000 barrels a year and had built up a successful export trade. His son Arthur II inherited the brewery with the business passing from father to son for the next five successive generations. By the 20th century, Guinness was the world´s largest brewery and a renowned international brand. Over the last three centuries. it has become a legendary part of Irish culture.
In 1959 to celebrate the 200-year anniversary, the company launched Draught Guinness, dispensing Guinness using a nitrogen gas dispensing system in bars for the first time. Also, as part of the celebrations in 1959, 150,000 specially embossed bottles were dropped from 30 freighters in the Atlantic to be targeted to make landfall on the eastern seaboard of the USA and Canada. These specially made bottles had the outline of the North American Continent on them. The bottles were sealed with a lead capping to protect the small number of documents they contained, the most interesting of these being a colourful certificate from the Office of King Neptune. In addition, there was a little booklet recounting the story of Guinness and a special gold-coloured Guinness label attached to same and instructions on how to turn the bottle into a table lamp. These bottles were turning up over 50 years after the event making it the longest running Guinness advertising promotion. The stamp set was printed by De La Rue, Dublin.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
This special cover in an issue of 40,000 was sent out by Guinness´s to shareholders and contained a presentation card and a set of mint stamps.
Staehle Cachet
1960
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1960
Bunratty Castle, County Clare: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Bunratty Castle, County Clare resides along the junction of the Shannon Estuary and the Owenogarney River, once known as the “Raithe River.” The castle received its name from the Irish “Caisleán Bhun Raithe” which translates as “Castle at the Mouth of the Raithe.” The location has always been seen as a strategic point. The Vikings settled here and developed extensive trade links. The first castle was built by the Norman invaders in 1250 when King Henry III granted the lands to Robert De Muscegro who built a Norman style structure consisting of a strong wooden tower atop an earthen motte. The lands were later revoked by King Henry III and granted to Thomas De Clare, a descendant of Strongbow who built the first stone castle on the site. The local inhabitants who numbered in the region of 1,000 were driven out. This set the scene for the conflicts that followed between the native clans, the O´Brien´s and the McNamara’s and the Normans. At times they could be allies. In 1277, Brian Ruadh O´Brien felt usurped as King of Thomond by his nephew Turlough O´Brien. He attempted to enlist the support of the Normans in recapturing his lands. When invited to Bunratty Castle as a guest, De Clare had Brian Ruadh O´Brien seized and killed in the most brutal way, torn apart by horses. His head was cut off and his body put on show on a tall post. This story has been passed down in the Annals of Lough Key.
After this episode both the O´Brien´s and McNamara´s hatred for the Norman Lord deepened and they launched regular attacks on the castle. In 1318, Thomas De Clare and his son Richard were slain by Irish forces at the Battle of Dysert O´Dea. On learning the news, his wife set fire to the castle and town before setting sail for England. When the Irish arrived, they found it destroyed and deserted. In 1322, the castle was restored to the King of England. However, the Irish Chieftains of Thomond destroyed it a decade later in 1332 under the O´Brien´s and the McNamara´s. The castle remained in ruins for 21 years before being rebuilt by Sir Thomas Rokeby. However, it was once again attacked and destroyed by the Irish. The fourth and final castle was built by the McNamara´s around 1425.
Approximately half a century later, ownership reverted to the O´Brien´s the most prominent clan in North Munster. The castle and surrounding area prospered under the O´Briens who were granted the title, “Earls of Thomond” by King Henry VIII of England. Bunratty Castle was surrendered when their reign ended upon the arrival of Cromwellian troops. Thereafter the O´Briens relocated to Dromoland Castle. In 1646, Lord Barnabas O´Brien allowed Lord Forbes who was commanding the forces of the English to occupy Bunratty Castle. When he left for England to join King Charles, the defence of the castle was left to Rear Admiral Penn. After a long siege, the castle was surrendered to the Confederates and Penn was allowed to sail to Kinsale. Over time, various families occupied the castle until the Studdert family took possession in 1720. They remained there for almost a century before the castle fell into disrepair and ruin. In 1945, the ruins were purchased by Lord Gort who had a deep interest in Irish medieval history. He took on the massive project of reconstructing and furnishing the castle to its current condition. Lord and Lady Gort donated Bunratty Castle to the Irish nation. Today Bunratty Castle and its Folk Park are one of Ireland´s premier attractions.
World Refugee Year-Flight of the Holy Family
Issued 20th June 1960
The World Refugee Year was officially launched on 28th June 1959 so that a humanitarian effort could be made to help bring the refugee problems near a solution. The United Nations High Commissioner´s Office allowed each country which participated to help whatever group of refugees it desired whether or not they came within its mandate. It was estimated, there were 40 million refugees at the end of the Second World War. Fifteen million of these over a decade later were still displaced and without a permanent home. In Europe of the 28,000 people in refugee camps, 18,000 were older people who had spent at least 10 years in camps and a quarter were under the age of fourteen. In addition, to those living in camps, 100,000 others were living in difficult situations. In Hong Kong there were 1,000,000 Chinese refugees who had fled from the mainland. One in every three people living in Hong Kong was a refugee. People were enduring terrible living conditions and a third of all children were dying from tuberculosis. In Korea and Vietnam, there were thousands of refugees who had sought asylum. By the end of 1958, more than 960,000 Palestinian Arab refugees had registered with the United Nations Relief Agency. Approximately 180,000 Algerians mostly women and children had fled to Tunisia and Morocco. Many of them were living in caves and mud huts. In India and Pakistan many people were still displaced since partition in 1947.
Through fundraising and public awareness, the World Refugee Year initiative aimed to shed light on the issue of resettlement. Over 70 postal authorities simultaneously issued stamps and First Day Covers to support these efforts. Ireland issued a set of two stamps to commemorate World Refugee Year and chose a biblical theme depicting the flight into Egypt. They were designed by Karl Uhlemann and printed by De La Rue, Dublin. Karl Uhlemann was born on 11th February 1912 to Karl Uhlemann Snr and Johanna Moore in Dublin. Karl Uhlemann Snr was born in Alsace-Lorraine, a territory that was ceded by France to Germany in 1871 after the Franco-German War. He was captured in the First World War and imprisoned in Oldcastle, County Meath. He married an Irish woman, Johanna Moore and never returned to Germany. In 1940, he became head chef at the Gresham Hotel. Karl Uhlemann the son, was employed as a designer in the Three Candles Press and later in life as a teacher in Rathmines College.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Blocks of Ten Mint Never Hinged (MNH)
Staehle Cachet-The Celtic Cross
Europa (C.E.P.T) 1960
Conference Emblem: Symbolic Wheel
Issued 19th September 1960
The year 1960 was the first official Europa (CEPT) stamp issue. Twenty countries issued a total of 36 stamps. It was Ireland’s first Europa Stamp Issue. The common design was a Roman mail-coach wheel with 19 spokes designed by the Finnish artist Pentti Rahikainen. The Irish stamps with recess printing were printed by De La Rue, Dublin. The first Europa Stamp was issued on 15th September 1956. In 1959, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) was displayed on the joint issue stamps. Europa stamps have been a symbol of Europe´s desire for closer integration and cooperation. They build awareness of the common roots, culture and history of Europe.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1961
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1961
Clara Castle, County Kilkenny-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Clara Castle is a tower house located about 6km east of Kilkenny City. It was built in the late 15th/early 16th century by the Shorthall family who lived there until circa 1640. Tower houses which are typically dated between 1400 and 1600 are amongst the most common of upstanding archaeological monuments in Ireland. Many points of contention persist among scholars as to their origin, date and function. One particular definition describes the tower-house as a fortified house in which the hall is raised above the ground with one or more storeys above it. It was the typical abode of the Gaelic and Anglo-Irish gentry of the 15th and 16th centuries with various defensive features. Clara castle passed to the Byrnes and occupants include Anthony Byrne (1656-1720), Lewis Byrne (1690-1766), Mathew Byrne (1694-1754), Anthony Byrne (1725-1810) and Michael Byrne (1762-1835). The castle was occupied until 1905.
25th Anniversary of the Founding of Aer Lingus
Issued 26th June 1961
Aer Lingus was founded in 1936 with a capital of 100,000 pounds and is Ireland’s national flag carrier. Its first service was between Baldonnel Airfield, Dublin and Whitchurch, Bristol. The company used a 6-seater De Havilland 84 Dragon for the route, its first and only plane at the time. Three years later in 1939, after being established as the national carrier under the Air Navigation and Transport Act, Aer Lingus received two Lockheed L-14s, its first all-metal aircraft. During the Second World War, the sole route operational was Liverpool or the Barton Aerodrome, Manchester depending on the security situation that prevailed. In early November 1945, regular services resumed with a flight to London and one year later in 1946, Aer Lingus gained exclusive United Kingdom traffic rights from Ireland. This came at a price however, 40% of the company was now held by BOAC and British European Airways. During the late 1940s and 1950s, Aer Lingus continued its expansion, purchasing Vickers Viscount 700 aircraft and introducing routes to Brussels, Amsterdam and Rome. In April 1958, Aer Lingus operated its first transatlantic service from Shannon to New York and on 14th December 1960, the company acquired its first jets, three Boeing 720s, followed by the Boeing 707 four years later. The stamp set designed by J. Flanagan and D. R. Lowther and printed by De La Rue, Dublin features Dublin Airport, a De Havilland DH 84, a Dragon MK 2 Lolar and a Boeing 720.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1,500 Death Anniversary of St. Patrick
Issued 25th September 1961
The year 1961 was in Ireland the Patrician Year marked by twelve months of religious celebration in recognition of 1,500 years of devotion to St. Patrick in Ireland. They were the longest celebrations for St. Patrick ever seen in Ireland. The Patrician Year commenced on St. Patrick´s Day 17th March by having a Pontifical Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh City which was presided over by Cardinal James McIntyre of Los Angeles. He had arrived four days earlier in Dublin and had travelled to Armagh with President Eamon de Valera and Taoiseach Seán Lemass. It was the first time they journeyed north of the border together in an official visit. Their 12-car motorcade was greeted by cheering crowds and elaborately decorated villages along its journey northward. In June, the Papal Legate Cardinal Agagianian visited Ireland. He and Cardinal John Charles McQuaid travelled through the thronged streets of Dublin to scenes of a mass outpouring of spontaneous and unquestioning devotion to the Catholic hierarchy not witnessed since the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 and not to be seen again until Pope John Paul II visited in 1979. Other diocesan celebrations took place throughout Ireland at locations having a historical connection with St. Patrick. At each event, there was a solemn Pontifical Mass and a torchlight procession afterwards by the clergy and members of the public. Many thousands of pilgrims partook in these processions of piety and devotion. The three-stamp set printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. LTD. is based on representations of St. Patrick in a 1624 biography by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Messingham.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1962
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1962
Dunsoghley Castle, County Dublin: Part of the Series of Irish Castles
There has been a dun or fort at Dunsoghley in the Civil Parish of St. Margarets, Fingal, County Dublin from very early times. The first mention of a castle here appears in 1446 when Sir Rowland Plunkett, Baron of Killeen and later Earl of Fingal is mentioned as being in residence there and to him is attributed the building of the castle on the site of a dwellinghouse belonging to the Finglas family. For over 500 years, the castle was to be a Plunkett stronghold and the family have been closely associated with the history of North Dublin over that period. The castle has been in state ownership since 1914 and is managed by the Office of Public Works. The land surrounding the castle is in private ownership. The four-storey tower house of Dunsoghley Castle served as a stand-in for Edinburgh Castle for the 1995 film Braveheart, retelling the life of Sir William Wallace.
Death Centenaries of O´Donovan and O´Curry
Gaelic Scholars and Translators
Issued 26th March 1962
John O´Donovan the Irish scholar was born in 1809 in County Kilkenny. Having applied himself to the study of the Irish language, he was employed to transcribe legal and historical documents in the Record Office before obtaining a position in the historical department of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Here he examined the ancient manuscripts in the Irish language held in the Royal Academy and elsewhere for the purpose of fixing and assigning names on the maps and extracting the local information they contained. After carrying out research in every part of Ireland, the names of 62,000 townlands were fixed. Through this work, John O´Donovan acquired a knowledge of the language in its ancient and obsolete forms. He published essays in the Dublin Penny Journal on subjects such as the Battle of Clontarf and Irish Proverbs. In 1836, he began to compile a catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in Trinity College and in 1847, he was engaged to translate and edit the first edition of the Annals of the Four Masters for the publishers Hedges & Smith, Dublin. This work gained for John O´Donovan a degree from Trinity College and the Cunningham Medal from the Royal Irish Academy. In 1852, he received a commission for the translation of the ancient Laws of Ireland. John O´Donovan died on 9th December 1861 and was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Eugene O´Curry was born in 1794 in Doonha, County Clare. In 1835, he joined the staff of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland where he was engaged in the study and interpretation of Irish manuscripts. He also arranged many of the Irish manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Library and compiled the catalogue of those in the British Museum. His work had an important influence on the revival of the Gaelic language and literature and contributed to the late 19th century Irish literary renaissance. He had a strong interest in traditional music and in 1851, he cofounded with George Petrie the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland. In 1854, Eugene O´Curry was appointed Professor of Irish History and Archaeology in the new Catholic University of Ireland. He died suddenly in Dublin on 30th July 1962 and was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. The stamp set was printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Sons Ltd.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1962
Leaves on Young Tree
Issued 17th September 1962
The stamp design created by Luxembourg artist Lex Weyer features a tree with 19 little leaves, one for each of the 1962 members of C.E.P.T which symbolise the collective work of the organisation. The Irish stamps were printed by De La Rue, Dublin.
Blocks of Four Mint Never Hinged (MNH)
1963
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1963
Derryhivenny Castle, County Galway-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Derryhivenny Castle located near Portumna, County Galway was built in 1643 by Daniel O´Madden a member of the powerful O´Madden clan that ruled the lands around Derryhivenny from around the year 950 to the middle of the 17th century. With its tower house of 4-storeys, it is one of the last true tower houses erected in Ireland. Of its subsequent history, little is known but that it was a peaceful one is evident from the remarkably well-preserved condition of the structure. A National Monument, it is managed by the Office of Public Works.
Freedom from Hunger Campaign (Organised by the UN)
Campaign Emblem: Wheat and Globe
Issued 21st March 1963
The Freedom from Hunger Campaign was initiated in 1960 under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. Conceived as a five-year project, it was intended to increase public awareness of the problem of world hunger and to co-ordinate action to solve the problem. Thirty national committees were set up around the world. One of the activities of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign was a simultaneous worldwide stamp issue in the tradition of other United Nations agency campaigns. The stamps issued by 153 countries would draw attention to the needs of the hungry as well as raising funds. The Irish stamp set designed by Karl Uhlemann and printed by De La Rue, Dublin was issued on 21st March 1963 and from sales a donation of 7,900 was made to the Food and Agriculture Organisation in support of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa (C.E.P.T) 1963
Links Symbolising Unity
Issued 16th September 1963
The stamp design created by Norwegian artist Arne Holm features a stylised cross design composed of four 3-sided U shapes with CEPT inlaid. Nineteen countries issued stamps. The Irish stamps were printed by De La Rue, Dublin.
Blocks of Four Mint Never Hinged (MNH)
Centenary of the Red Cross
Issued 2nd December 1963
The International Red Cross started in 1863 and was inspired by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant. The suffering of thousands of men on both sides at the Battle of Solferino during the second war of Italian Independence in 1859 upset Dunant. Many were left to die due to lack of care. He proposed creating national relief societies made up of volunteers, trained peacetime to provide neutral and impartial help to relieve suffering in times of war. In response to these ideas a committee which later became the International Committee of the Red Cross was established in Geneva. The founding charter of the Red Cross was drawn up in 1863. Dunant also proposed that countries adopt an international agreement which would recognise the status of medical services and of the wounded on the battlefield. This agreement, the original Geneva Convention was adapted in 1864.
The Irish Red Cross was established in 1939 and has paid a key part in the medical, social, cultural, political and diplomatic history of 20th century Ireland. During the early 1940s, the Irish Red Cross Society laid the foundations for the establishment of a national blood transfusion service. The society´s steering of a national anti-tuberculosis campaign brought the issue of the eradication of TB to the fore and helped change public attitudes towards the disease. From the 1950s, the society led the way in caring for the elderly in Ireland. From its inception, the Irish Red Cross Society has also been involved with the settlement and needs of refugees and the provision of international humanitarian relief from Ireland. Overseas wartime relief efforts and its post-war work for child refugees earned it significant international recognition and prestige. The International Centenary commemoration Day of the Red Cross was celebrated on 1st September 1963 and in many countries various events took place. The stamp set designed by Peter Wilbur and printed by Harrison & Sons Ltd, London was issued on 2nd December 1963.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Maximum Card
1964
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1964
Trim Castle, County Meath-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Trim Castle County Meath was built in the 12th century by the Anglo-Norman lord Hugh De Lacy. It is the largest and one of the most impressive Norman castles in Ireland. The castle we see today is not the original fortification built by De Lacy. This was a ringwork castle constructed of timber and earthwork defences. It was captured and burned by the Irish High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair in 1174 during his campaign to push the Normans out of Ireland. De Lacy reconstructed a large stone fortress with a deep moat and strong walls. It had a central tower and towers to the north, east, south and west. It was spread over three floors, the third added in and around 1205. When Hugh De Lacy married Rose, the daughter of Irish High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair in 1186, it was interpreted as a threat to King Henry II. Shortly after his marriage, Hugh De lacy went to Durrow, County Offaly to construct a castle. As he was inspecting the works, a young Irish noble Gilla Ganinathair Ua Miadhaigh struck down De lacy with an axe he had hidden under his cloak, decapitating the mighty Lord of Meath. The assailant fled the scene and managed to escape. King Henry II was overjoyed to hear of the demise of De Lacy and as Hugh´s eldest son Walter was not of age to inherit; he incorporated all of the De Lacy estates as Crown lands.
Walter De Lacy finally inherited Trim and his father´s lands in 1189. He also fell out of favour with the Crown when he joined forces with John De Courcy in attacking the lands of Prince John who was in rebellion against King Richard the Lionheart. After John became King following Richard´s death, he punished Walter De Lacy by seizing his lands and forcing him to flee to France. It was only after King John signed the Magna Carta along with a general reconciliation that Walter De Lacy was allowed to resume control of his estates. Walter De Lacy died in 1241 outliving both his son and grandson. His granddaughter Maud was granted Trim Castle and she married Geoffrey De Geneville. Eventually, the castle passed to their eldest daughter Joan who married Roger Mortimer. During the 15th century, Trim castle became a Yorkist stronghold during the War of the Roses but by the end of the 17th century it had fallen into disrepair and decay. It passed into state ownership in 1993 and featured prominently in the filming of Mel Gibson´s film Braveheart.
Wolfe Tone Birth Bi-Centenary
Issued 13th April 1964
Wolfe Tone was one of the key figures in the United Ireland rebellion of 1798. He was born on 10th June 1763 in Dublin. The son of a coach-maker, his family was descended from French Huguenot settlers to Ireland. He studied law at Trinity College before going into politics. In October 1791, Wolfe Tone founded the United Irishmen with James Napper Tandy and Thomas Russell to achieve Catholic emancipation and with Protestant cooperation parliamentary reform. British attempts to suppress the society caused the organisation to go underground and become a movement dedicated to securing complete Irish independence. The United Irishmen were inspired by the revolutions in France and America to fight for an Ireland free from English rule where Catholics and Protestants lived together in peace. Wolfe Tone appealed to the French to aid Ireland in her fight and set sail with a French fleet to bring men and arms into Ireland in 1796 but storms prevented a successful landing. The rebellion finally arrived in the summer of 1798. On 24th May 1798, rebels attempted to take Dublin and the surrounding counties but were quickly suppressed. The rebellion spread to Wicklow, Antrim, Down, Wexford, Kilkenny and Meath but was unsuccessful. In October 1798, on his second attempt to land in Ireland with French troops and supplies, Wolfe Tone was taken prisoner in Lough Swilly, Donegal. He said at his trial that he was determined, “by frank and open war to procure the separation of Ireland and England.” Following his conviction, Wolfe Tone requested to be shot as a soldier. He was denied and on 10th November 1798, he was sentenced to be hanged on 12th November 1798. However, before he could be hanged, Wolfe Tone´s neck was slit either by a suicide attempt or at the hands of British soldiers, it remains unclear. He died on 16th November 1798 and was buried in Bodenstown, County Kildare. He is still heralded as a leading Irish revolutionary figure. The stamp set was designed by Peter Wildbur and printed by De La Rue, Dublin.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Wolfe Tone Irish Cover Club Cachet
New York World Trade Fair
Issued 20th July 1964
The 1964-1965 New York World´s Fair was the largest ever to be held in the United States occupying nearly a quarter mile of land. It was held over 140 pavilions representing 80 nations, 24 US states and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows, Corona Park in Queens, New York. The Fair had the theme, “Peace Through Understanding” dedicated to Man´s Achievement in a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe. The theme was symbolised by 12-storey high stainless-steel model of the earth called the Unisphere with the orbit tracks of three satellites encircling the giant globe. The Fair acted as a showcase of American culture and technology. American companies dominated the exposition and spent millions of dollars to create elaborate crowd-pleasing exhibits displaying many products then produced in America for transportation and living and consumer needs. American manufacturers of pens, chemicals, computers and automobiles had a major presence. The most notable exhibit was “Futurama” from General Motors in which visitors seated in 3-abreast moving armchairs glided past detailed miniature dioramas showing what life might be like in the near future. This was the era known as the Space Age when mankind took its first steps towards space exploration. The Fair gave many attendees their first ever interaction of any sort with computer hardware decades before the advent of personal computers and the Internet. Fifty-one million people attended the Fair, 20% below the projected attendance of 70 million. The exposition ended with huge financial losses and amid allegations of gross mismanagement.
The Irish pavilion at the Fair featured a modern version of the medieval towers that still stand in many places in Ireland. The second storey was encased in cement plaster giving the structure the appearance of an Irish castle. The whole pavilion was enclosed by a wall seven feet high, faced with Liscannor grey stone and reddish-brown marble. Two giant maps stood in the entry court showing areas of Irish influence during the Middle Ages, the routes of Irish military expeditions in the 17th and 18th centuries and the flow of emigration from Ireland to all parts of the world from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Through the Round Tower visitors reached the main hall where pictures of Irish poets hung from the ceiling. Headsets transmitted the voices of actors reading the words of Irish-born writers such as Shaw, Joyce, Swift, Wilde and Yeats. Also, in the main hall were displays of Irish arts and crafts, pottery and Waterford Glass; country life was depicted, horses, the turf and the beauty of racing and industrial development centring on a wide variety of products manufactured in Irish factories. There was a small outdoor theatre for performances of Irish dancers and singers. The stamp set was designed by S. Scott and printed by Harrison & Sons Ltd, London.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa (C.E. P. T.) 1964
Issued 14th September 1964
The Europa (C.E.P.T.) flower stamp set issued on 14th September 1964 was designed by French artist Georges Bétemps. Ireland was among the 19 countries that issued stamps. The Irish Stamps were printed by Harrison & Sons Ltd, London.
Blocks of Four Mint Never Hinged (MNH)
1965
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1965
Ballinlough Castle, County Westmeath-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Ballinlough Castle is situated near the rural town of Clonnellon, County Westmeath. An O´Reilly stronghold, the castle was constructed in 1614 and Hugh O´Reilly was the first person to inhabit it. The family traces directly back to Felim O´Reilly who died in 1447. The newer wing overlooking the lake was added by Sir Hugh O´Reilly (1741-1821) in 1790 and is accredited to the amateur architect Thomas Wogan Browne. Sir Hugh was created a baronet in 1795 and changed the family name in 1812 to Nugent in order to inherit from his maternal uncle Governor Nugent of Tortola, largest of the British Virgin Islands. Sir Hugh was succeeded by his eldest son James who was succeeded by his brother Sir John. His eldest son Sir Hugh was killed at an early age, so the title then passed to his second son Charles, a racehorse trainer in England. Sir Charles was a gambler which resulted in much of the Ballinlough lands, several thousand acres in Westmeath and Tipperary being sold along with much of the castle´s contents. Sir Charles´s only son was killed in a horse racing fall in Belgium in 1903 before the birth of his own son Hugh a few months later. Sir Hugh inherited the title on the death of his godfather in 1927. Ballinlough Castle was scheduled to be demolished by the Land Commission and Sir Hugh having created a number of successful businesses in England returned to Ballinlough to save his ancestral home. He restored the castle in the late 1930s. His son Sir John (1933-2010) continued the restoration and the castle is now in the hands of Nick and Alice Nugent. Ballinlough Castle has remained in the same family for over four centuries.
Centenary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Issued 17th May 1965
In 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid. Where lines crossed national borders, messages had to be translated into the particular system of the next jurisdiction. As a result, regional agreements began to be forged and in Europe representatives of 20 states gathered in Paris at an International Telegraph Conference to find ways to overcome barriers and make services more efficient. On 17th May 1865, the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris by its 20 founding members and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was established to supervise subsequent amendments to the agreement. Only a decade later, the next leap forward in communication occurred with the patenting of the telephone in 1876. ITU drew up international legislation governing the telephone; 5 minutes were specified as a unit of charge and the length of a call was limited to 10 minutes if there were other requests to the telephone line. Next came Radio, known as wireless telegraphy. Marconi made a one-way transatlantic transmission in 1901. In 1906, the first International Radiotelegraph Conference was held in Berlin. Here the first Radio Regulations were agreed. The conference also established SOS as the international maritime distress call. Through the 1920s, the use of radio grew rapidly and in 1927 frequency bands were allocated to the various radio services. On 15th November 1947, an agreement with ITU and the newly created United Nations recognised ITU as the specialised agency for telecommunications. The agreement came into force on 1st January 1947. After the Second World War, television began to take off. In the following decades ITU published more than 150 technical standards for high quality images to be delivered across the world. The space age began on 4th October 1957 with the launch of the Soviet Union´s first artificial satellite Sputnik-1. Not long afterwards satellites became used for telecommunications. The ITU put in place regulations governing satellites use of orbital slots. Since its foundation in 1865, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has been at the centre of advances in communications from telegraphy through to the modern world of satellites, mobile phones and the internet. Their mission from the beginning was to achieve the best practical solutions for integrating new technologies as they develop and to spread their benefits to all. The set of two Irish stamps were designed by Peter Wildbur and printed by Harrison & Sons Ltd, London.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Centenary of the Birth of William Butler Yeats
Issued 14th June 1965
William Butler Yeats was born on 13th June 1865 at Sandymount, Dublin. He is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. In 1867, when Yeats was only two, his family moved to London but he spent much of his boyhood and school holidays in County Sligo with his grandparents. Here the scenery, folklore and supernatural legend would colour Yeats work and form the setting of many of his poems. In 1880, his family moved back to Dublin and in 1883, he attended the Metropolitan School of Art. When the family moved back to London in 1887, Yeats quickly became involved in the literary life of London. In 1889, he met Maud Gonne and from that moment as he wrote, “the troubling of my life began.” He fell in love with her but Maud Gonne liked and admired him but was not in love with him. Her passion was lavished on Ireland. She was an Irish patriot and a rebel. When Yeats joined in the Irish Nationalist cause, he did so partly from conviction but mostly for the love of Maud Gonne. In 1899, he asked Maud Gonne to marry him but she declined. Four years later, she married Major John MacBride, one of the rebels executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. When Yeats play “Cathleen Ni Houlihan was first performed in Dublin in 1902, Maud Gonne played the title role. Yeats first volume of verse appeared in 1887 and together with Lady Gregory, he founded the Irish Theatre which was to become the Abbey Theatre. He served as its chief playwright. His plays usually about Irish legends were performed here; “The Countess of Cathleen” (1892), “The Land of Heart´s Desire” (1894), “Cathleen Ni Houlihan” (1902), “The King´s Threshold” (1904) and “Deirdre” (1907) are among the best known. After 1910, Yeats dramatic work took a sharp turn towards a highly poetical style. His later plays were written for small audiences and were influenced by Japanese Noh plays. In 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after he received the award. Whereas Yeats received the Nobel Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his poetry especially the volumes, “The Wild Swans of Coole” (1919), “Michael Robartes and the Dancer” (1921), “The Tower” (1928), “The Winding Stair” and other poems (1933) and “Last Poems and Plays” (1940). William Butler Yeats died on 28th January 1939 while abroad and was buried at Roquebrune, France. The intention of having his body buried in Sligo was thwarted when the Second World War began in 1939. In 1948, his body was finally taken back to Sligo and buried in a little Protestant churchyard at Drumcliffe. His own epitaph reads; Cast a cold eye/On Life, On Death/ Horseman, Pass by! The stamps were designed by Raymond Kyne from a portrait by S. O´Sullivan with photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch. The Revenue Printing Branch relates directly to the Irish Government´s printing operations located at Dublin Castle and which operated under the auspices of the Revenue Commissioners.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
International Cooperation Year (I.C.Y) and 20th Anniversary of the UNO
Issued 16th August 1965
Following the Second World War, the desire for an international body to aid world peace and security resulted in conferences held among the victorious powers. The outcome, the United Nations Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26th June 1945 and subsequently ratified on 24th October that year. In 1961, the Indian Prime Minster suggested that 1965, the 20th anniversary of the UN be designated International Cooperation Year (ICY) to emphasise the role of the international community in world development. This idea was passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1963. On 8th April 1964, the chairman of the Committee for International Cooperation Year wrote to the Director-General of the Universal Postal Union advising that the United Nations Postal Administration in New York intended to issue stamps to mark the International Cooperation Year. The Universal Postal Union was requested to ask member states to consider issuing a stamp of the same design as that of the United Nations with only minimal variations. This was to feature the International Cooperation Year symbol with “Peace and Progress through Co-operation” and would differ from country to country only in language and denomination. The choice of colour was left to the postal administrations of those countries that chose to participate. Ireland´s set of stamps were designed by A. S. Chamberlain and were printed by the photogravure process by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1965
Issued 27th September 1965
The Europa (C.E.P.T) stamps were issued on 27th September 1965. The design was a tree sprig designed by the Islandic artist Hordur Karlsson and represented Posts, Telegraphs & Telephone. Nineteen countries issued stamps and the Irish stamps with photogravure printing were printed by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1966
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1966
Birr Castle, County Offaly-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Birr Castle is the oldest inhabited home in County Offaly. In the 16th century, the O´Carroll´s of Ely had one of their castles here and about 1620 this was granted to Sir Laurence Parsons. He built most of the structure of the present castle employing English masons. The original castle was a more modest fortified house. The castle was originally known as Parsonstown after the family name. It was besieged in the 17th century and one of the towers still shows the scars of the artillery of Patrick Sarsfield who tried unsuccessfully to take it. As the Parson family grew in power and prominence so did the castle. Eventually the Parsons became the Earls of Rosse and Birr Castle became their seat. Each generation of the Parson´s family, Earls of Rosse have made huge and important contributions to science. The 3rd Earl of Rosse built the largest telescope in the world in 1840 with which he discovered the “Whirlpool Nepula” and devised a method of calculating the heat of the moon´s surface which proved to be amazingly accurate. His son invented the steam turbine which changed the course of history throughout the world. The telescope which held the record of being the largest in the world for 70 years has since been fully restored.
Throughout its history, Birr Castle underwent several architectural changes and renovations. It evolved from its original fortified structure into a more elegant Georgian style residence. The 90-room castle stands on a 120-acre walled estate with parklands and gardens. The 17th century parklands surrounding the castle feature a famous herbaceous border overlooking the Camcor River and the oldest suspension bridge in Ireland. There is a wildflower meadow that has not been ploughed in over 400 years and in the centre the O´Carroll oak tree is thought to be more than 500 years old. The award-winning gardens house nearly 2,000 species of plants including an abundance of rare plants that the Earls of Rosse have collected from all around the world over the last 150 years. The gardens also feature 40 champion trees, the world´s tallest box hedges as well as rivers, lakes and waterfalls. The demesne also includes an interactive Science Centre which takes you through the wonders of early photography, engineering and astronomy.
Golden Jubilee of the Easter Rising
Issued 12th April 1966
This set of eight stamps from portraits by S. O´Sullivan were designed by Edward Kyne with all the portrait designs by Raymond Kyne. The stamps with photogravure printing were printed by the Revenue Printing Branch in honour of the signatories of the Irish Proclamation. On Easter Sunday 10th April 1966, the Official Ceremony to mark the Golden Jubilee of the 1916 Easter Rising began with a military parade attended by 600 veterans of the Rising on O´Connell Street, Dublin with at least 200,000 spectators gathered in the city centre. President Eamon de Valera took the salute. Later that Sunday, the President laid a wreath at Kilmainham Gaol and opened the museum there. On Easter Sunday night, Telefís Éireann now four years old screened the first half hour part of “Insurrection” a series written by Hugh Leonard. The series was shown over eight days. The station also broadcast two pageants which were specifically written for the Golden Jubilee commemorations. “Seachtar Fear,” “Seacht Lá” was commissioned by the GAA and staged in Croke Park on St. Patrick´s Day and again on the following two days. It was also performed in Casement Park, Belfast during Easter Week. The cast of 400 included the Artane Boy´s Band and two other pipe bands. The second “Aiséirí” by Tomás had a large cast of over 80 speaking roles drawn mainly from the ranks of Raidió Éireann players and the Abbey Theatre. The Defence Forces provided 300 members for the battle scenes and a further 200 extras were required for the series. The production took eight months and over 300 scenes. On Easter Monday, churches held religious ceremonies to mark the Golden Jubilee and at midday the President opened the Garden of Remembrance at Parnell Square, Dublin. A commemorative concert “A Terrible Beauty is Born” composed by Brian Boydell was aired on Raidió Éireann from the Gaiety Theatre. New statues were erected in Dublin City and around the country. CIE renamed major railway stations after 1916 leaders and Dublin buses bore the commemorative emblem adopted by the Irish government, “The Sword of Light” (An Claíomh Solais).
Booklet of Commemorative Stamps
Plain First Day Cover
50th Anniversary of the Death of Roger Casement
Issued 3rd August 1966
Roger Casement was born on 1st September 1864 in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), County Dublin. He became a British Consul serving in Portuguese East Africa (1895-1898), Angola (1898-1900), Congo Free State (1901-1904) and Brazil (1906-1911). He gained international fame for revealing cruelty in the exploitation of native labour by white traders in the Congo and the Putumayo River Region, Peru which earned him a knighthood from George V. In 1912, he retired due to ill health and returned to Ireland. In 1913, Roger Casement joined the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers and became an active recruiting agent. He was one of the principal organisers of the Howth gun running to arm the volunteers. It was he who enlisted the services of Erskine Childers to deliver the weapons on his yacht off Howth. In July 1914, Roger Casement travelled to New York to seek American aid for the Volunteers. After the First World War broke out in August 1914, he hoped Germany might assist the Irish independence movement. On arriving in Berlin in November 1914, Casement asked the Germans to facilitate the formation of an Irish Brigade made up of Irish soldiers who were prisoners of war in Germany. The Germans agreed but most of the Irish prisoners refused to turn against the army in which they were serving and Casement only managed to recruit 56 men from over 2,200 Irish prisoners of war. The German government was unwilling to risk an expedition to Ireland but agreed to provide 20,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 machine guns and some explosives for the proposed Easter Rising. The weapons left Germany on 9th April 1916 aboard a disguised Norwegian trader, the SS Aud under the command of Lieutenant Karl Spindler bound for Fenit, County Kerry.
Roger Casement sailed for Ireland on 12th April 1916 in a German submarine. He intended to land ahead of the gunrunning ship and to organise the landing and distribution of the munitions. He was put ashore on Banna Beach, County Kerry but his plans failed mainly due to communications breakdowns. On 20th April 1916, the Aud caught her first sight of Ireland and as previously arranged began showing the agreed signals but no answering signal was returned from the shore. The local Irish Volunteer leaders in Kerry did not expect the ship until Easter Sunday 23rd April 1916. Realising the undertaking had failed, Lieutenant Spindler intended to wait until nightfall and then make a breakout from Tralee Bay. However, in the early afternoon, a British warship approached the Aud´s anchorage and despite Spindler´s best efforts to make for the open seas, the Aud was hemmed in on all sides by a number of British warships. Any plans to escape now would have to be aborted. Throughout the night as they were escorted to Queenstown, the German crew prepared and planted explosives with a plan to scuttle the ship. As they anchored close to the entrance to Cork Harbour on the morning of Saturday 22nd April 1916, the Aud was hurriedly evacuated and the pre-set explosives were detonated sending the Aud and its cargo of weapons to the ocean floor. Spindler and his crew were taken as prisoners of war and within days were transferred to prisoner of war camps in England. Roger Casement was arrested on Banna Beach on 24th April and taken to London where on 29th June 1916, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged. An appeal was dismissed and he was hanged on 3rd August 1916 at Pentonville Prison despite attempts by influential Englishmen to secure a reprieve in view of his past services to the British government. His remains were interred within the walls of the prison. In 1965, Roger Casement´s remains were returned to Ireland and after a state funeral on 1st March 1965, he was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. The stamp set designed by Raymond Kyne were printed with photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1966
Issued 26th September 1966
The Europa (C.E.P.T) stamps were printed on 26th September 1966. The design was a ship designed by the German artists Gregor and Josef Bender. Nineteen countries took part and the Irish stamps with photogravure printing were printed by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
750th Anniversary of Ballintubber Abbey
Issued 8th November 1966
Ballintubber Abbey is situated two kilometres northeast of the village of Ballintubber Abbey, County Mayo. It was built in 1216 by Cathal Crovdearg O´Connor, King of Connacht on the ruins of a small church close to the present one founded by St. Patrick in 441. Cathal Crovdearg known as Cathal of the Wine-Red Hand, was a member of the O´Connor family, notable patrons of the arts. The Cross of Cong one of Ireland´s national treasures was made for his father Turloch O´Connor. Before ascending to the throne, Cathal fled from the vengeance of Turloch´s queen and found shelter in Ballintubber where he worked for a man named Sheridan. Cathal was well treated by Sheridan and for thanking him for his kindness, he had Ballintubber Abbey built. In 1653, the Abbey was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation by Cromwell and left roofless but it continued to be used by Catholics throughout the penal times. For 236 years, the people were attending Mass in an unroofed Abbey exposed to the cold, wind and rain. The Abbey was restored in 1966 and it is said that this is the only church in Ireland still in use since its foundation. Ballintubber was 276 years old when Christopher Columbus discovered America and it is 300 years older than St. Peter´s in Rome. The two stamps were designed by A. S. Chamberlain from a lithograph by George Wilkinson. They were printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
1967
St. Patrick´s Day on a Staehle Cachet: 17th March 1967
Dromoland Castle, County Clare-Part of the Series of Irish Castles
Dromoland Castle near Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare now functions as a luxury hotel with its own golf course. The present building was constructed in 1835 but the first building was a 15th or early 16th tower house. There were at least three houses here at various times called Dromoland which translates as “the Hill of Litigation.” They were inhabited by eight generations of the O´Brien family. In 1551, Dromoland was listed in the will of Murrough O´Brien a Celtic chief who in 1543 had been granted the title of first Earl of Thomond by Henry VIII. Murrough bequeathed the castle and lands at Dromoland to his third son Donough MacMurrough O´Brien. In 1582, Donough was hanged in Limerick on charges of rebellion. It was decided that all of his property would be forfeited to the Queen. George Cusack the Sheriff, then took possession of Dromoland. Some years later, Turlough O´Brien killed Cusack and various O´Briens attempted to repossess Dromoland. The fourth Earl of Thomond claimed to have sole ownership and tried to exclude Donough´s son Conor McDonough O´Brien. A legal battle ensued and the dispute was settled by arbitration. In 1604, when Conor died, he left Dromoland to his son Donough MacConor O´Brien. By 1614, a William Starkey was leasing Dromoland. Robert Starkey, son of William was in residence at Dromoland when the rebellion of 1641 began. It seems he fled the area because in 1642 Colonel Conor O´Brien, son of Donough seized the castle thereby continuing his father´s claim to Dromoland. Conor was killed in battle in 1651. His eldest son Donough was now heir to the family claim on Dromoland. Robert Starkey resumed his lease and in 1666 Dromoland was sub-leased to Colonel Daniel O´Brien from Carrigaholt, County Clare. Three years later, it was assigned to Thomas Walcott of Moyhill. Finally in 1684, the freehold was assigned to Donough O´Brien.
In 1795, Sir Edward O´Brien became the owner of Dromoland Castle and oversaw renovations to the main house that lasted well into the 1800s. The cost of cutting and hauling its stone proved enormous. The castle was the birthplace of William Smith O´Brien, leader of the Young Irelanders rebellion against the British in 1848. In 1962, Sir Donough O´Brien sold Dromoland Castle and its surrounding lands to American industrialist Bernard McDonough. He converted the castle into a luxurious hotel. In the late 1990s, a group of Irish and American investors purchased Dromoland Castle and under their stewardship, the castle transformed into one of Europe´s most celebrated holiday destinations.
Europa (C.E.P.T) 1967
Issued 2nd May 1967
The Europa (C.E.P.T) stamps were printed on 2nd May 1967. The common design represented cogwheels designed by the Belgian artist Oscar Bonnevalle. Nineteen countries took part and the Irish stamps with photogravure printing were printed by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Blocks of Four Mint Never Hinged (MNH)
Canadian Confederation Centenary
Issued 28th August 1967
Celebrations, activities and events of all kinds were held across Canada in 1967 to mark the 100th Anniversary of Confederation and promote the country´s achievements, history and cultural heritage. The Federal Centennial Commission founded thousands of special events and activities such as the Centennial Train and Caravans, the Centennial Medal and numerous music and sporting events across the nation. A focus of Centennial Year was the immensely successful Expo 67 World´s Fair in Montreal which was visited by 50 million people. In addition, provinces, municipalities, businesses and individuals undertook thousands of events that contributed to a national mood of excitement and optimism. To mark the Centennial, Ireland issued a set of two stamps designed by Patrick Hickey with photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
International Tourist Year
Issued 25th September 1967
The year 1967 was designated by the United Nations General Assembly as International Tourist Year in a resolution adopted in November 1966. The main purpose of the resolution was to encourage people to travel, especially to developing countries. It also aimed to make host countries aware of their obligation of hospitality towards visitors. The set of two Irish stamps designed by A. S. Chamberlain were adapted from a photograph of the Rock of Cashel. They were printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Philart First Day Cover
Philart a British company was one of several smaller producers of First Day Covers which were issued particularly during the 1960s and 1970s.
Fenian Rising
Issued 23rd October 1967
On the Centenary of the Fenian Rising of 1867 commemorations took place at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square, Dublin. An Taoiseach Jack Lynch reviewed a guard of honour and the tricolour was lowered to half-mast. The Taoiseach delivered a speech and laid a wreath in honour of those who took part in the Rising. Among the dignitaries and members of government in attendance were Minster for External Affairs Frank Aiken, Minster for Social Welfare Kevin Boland and Minster for Finance Charles Haughey. A set of two stamps were issued on 23rd October 1867 and designed by A. S. Chamberlain based on the Fenian Fantasy created by Samuel Allan Taylor. The stamps were printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). During the latter part of 1866, IRB leader James Stephens endeavoured to raise funds in the United States for a rising the following year. However, the rising of 1867 proved to be poorly organised. A brief rising took place in County Kerry in February followed by an attempt at nationwide insurrection including an attempt to take Dublin in early March. Due to poor planning and British infiltration of the nationalists, the rebellion never got off the ground. Most of the leaders in Ireland were arrested but although some of them were sentenced to death, none suffered execution. There followed a series of attacks in England aimed at freeing Fenian prisoners including a bomb in London and an attack on a prison van in Manchester for which three Fenians Larkin, Allen and O´Brien subsequently known as the Manchester Martyrs were executed in November 1867.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Set of Three Reprints Unused without gum
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
Souvenir Cinderella Mini Sheets
These souvenir Cinderella Mini Sheets were produced in the United States to mark the Centenary of the Fenian Rising.
Tercentenary of the Birth of Jonathan Swift
Issued 30th November 1967
Jonathan Swift satirist, author, essayist and poet was born on 30th November 1667 in Dublin. His father Jonathan Swift the elder was an Englishman who had settled in Ireland after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. His died in the spring of 1667, seven months before the birth of his son. When his mother returned to England shortly after his birth, Jonathan was left in the care of his uncle Godwin Swift who served as his benefactor. In 1682, Swift attended Trinity College, Dublin where he earned his BA. In 1688, the political troubles in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution forced Swift to leave for England where his mother helped him to get a position as secretary and personal assistant to the diplomat Sir William Temple. He remained in this position until Temple´s death in 1699 but had returned to Ireland twice during this period and during the second of these visits, he took orders in the Anglican Church being ordained a priest in January 1695. At the end of the same month, he was appointed vicar of Kilroot near Belfast a position he later resigned.
Between 1691and 1694, Jonathan Swift wrote a number of poems, notably six odes and between 1696 and 1699, he turned from verse to prose satire and composed “A Tale of a Tub” one of his major works. After Temple´s death in 1699, Swift returned to Dublin as chaplain and secretary to the Earl of Berkeley who was then going to Ireland as a Lord Justice. In 1710, Swift once again found himself in London where he became the Tories chief pamphleteer and political writer. He was rewarded for his services in April 1713, when he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick´s Cathedral in Dublin hence his nickname Dean Swift. In the 1720s and 1730s, Swift composed his poem “Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift” among others and in his Irish pamphlets of this period, he came to grips with many of the problems, social and economic then confronting Ireland. He blamed what he perceived as Ireland´s backward state chiefly on the blindness of the English government. Of his Irish writings, “the Drapier´s Letters” and “Modest Proposal” are the best known. Swift´s greatest satire “Gulliver´s Travels” was published in 1726. Its success was immediate and it stands as his masterpiece. In 1738 Swift began to show signs of illness and became increasingly quarrelsome. In 1741, guardians were appointed to take care of his affairs and watch lest in his outbursts of violence, he should do himself harm. In 1742, he suffered a stroke losing the ability to speak and to protect him from unscrupulous hangers on who had begun to prey on the great man, his closest companions had him declared of “unsound mind and memory.” However, it was long believed by many that Swift was actually insane at this point. On 19th October 1745, Jonathan Swift died and after being laid out in public view for the people of Dublin to pay their respects, he was buried in his own cathedral. The bulk of his fortune 12,000 pounds was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill. St. Patrick´s Hospital opened in 1757 and still exists as a psychiatric hospital. The two stamps issued for the 300th anniversary of his birth were designed by Michael Byrne from Swift´s bust in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
1968
Europa (C.E.P.T) 1968
Issued 29th April 1968
The Europa (C.E.P.T) stamps were issued on 29th April 1968. They were designed by the Swiss artist Hans Schwarzenbach as a key with the cept logo in the handle. Eighteen countries took part and the Irish stamps with photogravure printing were printed by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
800th Anniversary of St. Mary´s Cathedral
Issued 26th August 1968
St. Mary’s Cathedral stands on a hill in King´s Island which is the oldest part of Limerick. The location had earlier been used as a “Thingmote” a meeting place by the Vikings who had established a settlement in Limerick. The cathedral was established in 1168 on the site of a palace belonging to Donal Mór Ó´Brien, descendant of Brian Boru the last claimant to the title of King of Munster. During the last eight centuries, the cathedral has witnessed invasions, sieges, battles, wars, famine and unrest. During the 17th century when Limerick was besieged four times, the building experienced considerable upheaval. In 1651, Henry Ireton, General of the Parliamentary army surrounded Limerick which held out for almost six months before surrendering. The victorious troops used the cathedral as stables for their horses and also removed the Pre-Reformation altar. This altar was only re-instated in the cathedral in the 1960s. During the Williamite Wars of 1689-91, Limerick was again besieged, twice. On the second occasion in 1691, the city resisted for several months before surrounding to William III´s general, Godert de Ginkel. He then concluded the Treaty of Limerick with Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield. During the course of the siege, St. Mary´s Cathedral had suffered so severely from bombardment that King William provided 1,000 pounds towards the building´s repair. While the cathedral is a beautiful and historic building, it is still used for its original purpose as a place of worship and prayer. The two stamps were designed by J. J. Banbury with recess printing by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd, London.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Philart First Day Cover
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
Philart Maximum Card
Centenary of the Birth of James Connolly
Issued 23rd September 1968
James Connolly Marxist Union leader and revolutionary was born on 5th June 1868 in the Cowgate or “Little Ireland” district of Edinburgh, Scotland to Irish immigrants from County Monaghan. At the age of fourteen, he enlisted in the army falsifying both his name and age. Little is known of his military service before he discharged himself. In 1896, soon after his arrival in Dublin, James Connolly helped found the Irish Socialist Republican Party. From 1903 to 1910, he lived in New York where he helped organise the Industrial Workers of the World. He returned to Ireland and in 1912 at Clonmel, County Tipperary he and James Larkin founded the Irish Labour Party. He was also Larkin´s assistant in organising the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU). The success of the union in signing up thousands of unskilled men and women elicited an aggressive reaction from employers led by the owner of the Tramway Company William Murphy. Those who refused to renounce the union were dismissed or replaced by scab labour brought in from elsewhere in the country or from Britain. By the end of September 1913, the Lockout placed upwards of 100,000 workers and their families in need of assistance. James Connolly became commander of the Irish Citizen Army set up as a worker´s defence force against the brutality of the police towards the striking workers. After the ITGWU controlled Dublin Socialist Party failed in the January municipal elections to register support for the strike and the Trade Union Congress in England declined pleas for additional support and funding, the workers began to drift back, submitting to their employers. James Larkin went to the United States and did not return to Ireland until 1923. His departure left James Connolly in charge not only of the ITGWU with its headquarters at Liberty Hall but also of a Worker´s Militia.
In January 1916, James Connolly reached an agreement with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and his 200-strong contingent of the Irish Citizen Army joined forces with the Irish Volunteers in a Republican Army in which he was Commandant General. He contributed to the content of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic drafted by Pádraig Pearse and became Vice-President of the Provisional Government. On Easter Monday 24th April 1916, the Republican Army began an uprising against British Government in Ireland. Their forces seized the General Post Office and other strategic points in Dublin´s City Centre. From the steps of the GPO, Pádraig Pearse read aloud the Proclamation announcing the birth of the Irish Republic. During the Rising, James Connolly was located in the GPO with most of the other members of the Provisional Government. As Commandant General of the Dublin Division of the army, he decided military operations. For nearly a week, Dublin was paralyzed by street fighting. British artillery bombardments compelled Pádraig Pearse and his colleagues to surrender on 29th April 1916. Twice wounded in the fighting, James Connolly was among the last to evacuate the GPO carried on a stretcher. He was subsequently court-martialled and sentenced to death. At his trial, he read a brief hand-written statement, “The course of Irish freedom is safe as long as Irishmen are ready to die endeavouring to win it.” Although seriously injured James Connolly was executed in a seating position by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail on 12th May 1916. He and Seán MacDiarmada being the last of those to be executed. The set of two stamps to mark the Centenary of the Birth of James Connolly were designed by A. S. Chamberlain with photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Maximum Cards
Hibernian Stamp Company Maximum Card
The Hibernian Stamp Company located at Harrington Street, Dublin began trading on 20th December 1966.
Philart Maximum Card
Centenary of the Birth of Countess Markievicz
Issued 23rd September 1968
Constance Georgine Markievicz nee Gore-Booth revolutionary, politician, nationalist and socialist was born on 4th February 1868 into great wealth and privilege in Lissadell, Sligo. Her father Sir Henry Gore-Booth, an Arctic explorer and adventurer during the famine of 1879-80 provided food for the tenants on his estate at Lissadell House inspiring Constance and her younger sister Eva Gore-Booth to have a deep concern for working people and the poor. Constance trained as a painter at the Slade School of Art in London, later moving to Paris where she enrolled at the prestigious Académie Julian where she met and married Casimir Markievicz an artist from a wealthy Polish family. They settled in Dublin in 1903. In 1905, Constance became actively involved in nationalist politics in Ireland. She joined Sinn Féin and Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) a revolutionary woman´s movement formed by Maud Gonne. In 1909, she founded Fianna Éireann a nationalist scouting organisation. Constance was jailed for the first time in 1911 for speaking at an Irish Republican Brotherhood demonstration attended by 30,000 people organised to protest against George V´s visit to Ireland. She handed out leaflets, erected great banners, participated in stone throwing at pictures of the King and Queen and attempted to burn the giant British flag taken from Leinster House.
Constance joined James Connolly´s socialist Irish Citizen Army a volunteer force formed in response to the 1913 Lockout to defend the demonstrating workers from the brutality of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force. She herself collected and delivered bags of turf which she brought into Dublin in her car from the Dublin mountains. She was regularly seen hauling heavy bags of fuel up flights of stairs in back street tenement houses where so many of the poorest people in Dublin eked out a mere survival. Constance established a soup kitchen at Liberty Hall, the Irish Transport & General Workers Union headquarters. She became a commissioned officer in the Irish Citizen Army and was involved in the planning of the 1916 Easter Rising. She fought in St. Stephen´s Green and retreated to the College of Surgeons where she eventually surrendered. Sentenced to death for her part in the Rising, she was committed to life imprisonment because of her sex. Constance was released from Ailsbury Goal in England in 1917 following a general amnesty. In the 1918 General Election, she was elected for the constituency of Dublin St. Patricks making her the first woman elected to the House of Commons. However, in line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy she did not take her seat. Constance served as Minster for Labour from April 1919 to January 1922 in the Dáil making her the first Irish female Cabinet Minister and at the same time the second female Government Minster in Europe. She left the government in January 1922 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and worked actively for the Republican cause in the Irish Civil War. In 1926, she was one of the founding members of Fianna Fáil. In 1927, Constance fell seriously ill and was admitted to a public ward in Sir Patrick Dun´s Hospital. She died here on 15th July 1927. In death, Constance Markievicz was even more openly appreciated and acclaimed than in life. Three hundred thousand people attended the funeral to pay tribute to, “the friend of the toiler,” “the lover of the poor,” the words of Eamon de Valera who delivered the funeral oration. The set of two stamps to mark the Centenary of the Birth of Countess Markievicz were designed by A. S. Chamberlain with photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Philart First Day Cover
Maximum Cards
Hibernian Stamp Company Maximum Card
Philart Maximum Card
Birth Centenaries of Connolly/Markievicz
Issued 23rd September 1968
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
International Human Rights Year
Issued 10th November 1968
1968 was declared the International Year of Human Rights by UNESCO with the principal goal of bringing attention to the state of human rights throughout the world. The International Conference on Human Rights was held in Tehran from 22nd April to 13th May 1968. The conference was attended by representatives of 84 states and by representatives or observers from a number of United Nations bodies and specialised agencies, regional inter-governmental organisations and non-governmental organisations. The Irish set of stamps were printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1969
50th Anniversary of the First Dáil
Issued 21st January 1969
After the 1916 Easter Rising and the executions that followed it, public opinion in Ireland turned against the British. In the 1918 General Election, Sinn Féin the Nationalist Party won 73 of 105 Irish seats in the House of Commons. However, Sinn Féin had pledged not to sit in Westminster but to create an independent assembly in Ireland. The party made good on its promise by inviting all elected Irish representatives to attend a parliamentary assembly in Dublin. On 21st January 1919, the First Dáil met in the Round Room of the Mansion House. The room was crammed with onlookers and journalists who greatly outnumbered the 27 members who attended. Unionist and Irish Party MP´s declined to attend and are listed in the Official Report as absent. Many Sinn Féin members are listed as imprisoned by foreigners. Among these was Countess Markievicz who was imprisoned in Holloway Prison in London. During the two-hour sitting, Dáil Eireann members adopted a constitution and read out a Declaration of Independence first in Irish, then in French and finally in English. This declaration ratified the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed on Easter Monday 1916 and ordained, “that the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which that people will give its allegiance. The Dáil then called on the free nations of the world to support the Irish Republic by recognising Ireland´s national status and her right to its vindication at the Peace Congress. It also laid out a democratic programme declaring the desire that Ireland be ruled in accordance with the principles of Liberty, Equality and Justice for all which alone can secure permanence of government in the willing of the people. The first meeting of the Dáil in 1919 had coincided with the start of guerrilla attacks against the Crown forces which escalated into the War of Independence. In September the Dáil was declared a dangerous association by the British authorities and was prohibited but continued to meet in secret.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Irish Times First Day Cover
Plain First Day Cover
Philart Maximum Card
Following an international competition design for the new Irish definitive postage stamps were announced in 1967. The winning artist Heinrich Gerl from Munich, Germany was chosen from eleven artists who submitted 57 designs. The release begins the replacement of stamps first issued in 1922 and airmail stamps issued in 1948. The series of 16 postage stamps feature four animal symbols associated with early Irish art, the winged ox, the eagle, the stag and the dog. Each value carries one of the four basic designs to be used throughout the complete series; dog for the low values, stag for the middle value and the winged ox and eagle on the high values. The series of stamps were issued on four release dates;
First Group of Definitives: 2p, 8p, 2s 6p and 10s issued 14th October 1968.
Second Group of Definitives: 6p, 9p, 1s 9p and 5s issued 24th February 1969.
Third Group of Definitives: 4p, 5p, 10p and 1s issued 31st March 1969.
Fourth Group of Definitives: ½ p, 1p, 3p and 7p issued 9th June 1969.
The ½ p was withdrawn on 31st July 1969.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
1969
Europa (C.E.P.T) 1969
Issued 28th April 1969
In 1969, CEPT celebrated their 10th anniversary. It was the occasion for many countries to take part again in the Europa stamp issue, that´s why 26 countries participated that year and two new countries, the Vatican and Yugoslavia the first Communist country to take part. The common design was a temple made of the words Europa and CEPT designed by the Italian artists Luigi Gasbarra and Georgio Belli. The Irish stamps were printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
50th Anniversary of the First Transatlantic Flight
Issued 14th June 1969
50th Anniversary of the international Labour Organisation
Issued 14th July 1969
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. It was established by governments for the purpose of providing international collaboration in securing universal and lasting peace based on social justice by improving the conditions of labour. The activities of the ILO are divided between setting international standards for the protection of workers and providing international technical cooperation and technical assistance especially for developing countries. The ILO has adopted recommendations as diverse as hours of work, minimum age for employment, worker´s compensation, social security, forced labour, contracts of employment and the conduct of employment agencies.
Ireland joined the International Labour Organisation in 1923 and it was the first international organisation, the country joined. Ireland had the distinction of supplying two Presidents of the Annual Congress of the ILO. Seán Lemass when Minster for Industry and Commerce in 1937 and Jack Lynch when Minster for Industry and Commerce in 1962. Another Irishman, Edward J. Phelan was associated with the founding of the ILO and was its Deputy Director-General in 1946.
A programme to mark the 50th anniversary of the ILO in Ireland was worked out in consultation with employer and worker representatives. The programme included the issue of postage stamps, an art competition and publication of a brochure on Ireland´s role in the ILO. To mark the anniversary, the Government endowed a number of fellowships for trainees from developing countries at the centre for advanced technical and vocational training in Turin which is promoted by the ILO. The work of the ILO over 50 years was marked by the award to the organisation of the Nobel Prize for Peace. The stamp set were designed by Krystof Coppens Dabozewski and printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Contemporary Irish Art
Issued 1st September 1969
The contemporary Irish Art Stamp issued on 1st September 1969 was the largest single stamp ever issued by Ireland. Designed by Raymond Kyne and printed by photogravure printing by the Revenue Printing Branch, it featured the East Stained-Glass Window in Eton College by Evie Hone. The window which depicts the crucifixion was commissioned following the destruction of the building after a bomb was dropped on the school in 1940 during the Second World War. The famous Eton window an acknowledged masterpiece was begun in 1949 and installed in 1952. Evie Hone (1894-1955) was one of the leading stained-glass artists of the 20th century. She produced some 74 windows in the 22 years during which she worked in stained-glass. Another notable work piece was “My Four Green Fields” which is now in the Government Building in Dublin. It was commissioned for the Irish Government´s Pavillion which won first prize for stained-glass in the 1939 New York World´s Fair. It graced CIE´s Head Office in O´Connell Street, Dublin from 1960 to 1983. Evie Hone was extremely devout and spent time in an Anglican Convent in 1925 at Truro, Cornwall. She converted to Catholicism in 1937 and this may have influenced her decision to work in stained-glass. Initially, she worked as a member of the “An Túr Gloine” Stained-Glass Co-operative before setting up a studio of her own in Rathfarnham, Dublin
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp
Centenary of the Birth of Mahatma Gandhi
Issued 2nd October 1969
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist and anti-colonial nationalist who employed non-violent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India´s Independence from British rule. He came to be considered the father of his country. Mahatma Gandhi´s fame spread worldwide during his lifetime and only increased after his death. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The stamp set were designed by A. S. Chamberlain with typography by the Revenue Printing Branch.
Mint Never Hinged (MNH) Stamp Set
Europa 1970
Issued 4th May 1970
1970
50th Anniversary of the Death of MacCurtain/MacSwiney
Issued 26th October 1970
Irish Times First Day Cover
50th Anniversary of the Death of Kevin Barry
Issued 2nd November 1970
Irish Times First Day Cover
1971
Centenary of the Birth of John M. Synge 1871-1909
Issued 19th July 1971
100th Anniversary of the Birth of Jack B. Yeats
Issued 30th August 1971
Irish Times First Day Cover
Hibernian Stamp Company First Day Cover
1972
Honouring the Patriot Dead
Issued 1st June 1972
Irish Times First Day Cover
Europa 1972
Issued 1st May 1972
50th Anniversary of the First Postage Stamp
Issued 6th December 1972
1974
Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1974
Issued 29th April 1974
Death Bi-Centenary of Oliver Goldsmith
Issued 24th June 1974
Centenary of Irish Rugby Football Union
Issued 9th November 1974
Irish Times First Day Cover
1975
Bi-Centenary of the Presentation Order
Issued 1st September 1975
Irish Times First Day Cover
Centenary of the Lisburn Methodist Church
Issued 21st November 1975
1976
Centenary of the Birth of James Larkin
Issued 21st January 1976
Hibernian Stamp Company First Day Cover
Irish Times First Day Cover
50th Anniversary of the Irish Broadcasting Service
Issued 5th October 1976
Christmas 1976
Postmarked 24th December 1976
1977
1,100th Anniversary of the Death of Johannes Scottus Eriugena
Issued 12th September 1977
1978
50th Anniversary of the First East-West Transatlantic Flight
Issued 13th April 1978
1978 Anniversaries
Issued 18th September 1978
1979
Centenary of the Death of Sir Rowland Hill
Issued 20th August 1979
Colorano Silk Cachet
Centenary of the Birth of Pádraig Pearse
Issued 10th November 1979
Irish Times First Day Cover
Colorano Silk Cachet
1980
Europa (C.E. P.T.) 1980
Issued 7th May 1980
Hibernian Stamp Company First Day Cover
Whyte First Day Cover
Whyte Ltd renowned philatelic publishers and auctioneers were established in Ireland in 1966. The company is well-known in stamp and postal history circles.
Zaso Silk Cachets
Colorano Silk Cachet
1981
150th Anniversary of the Birth of O’Donovan Rossa
Issued 31st August 1981
Colorano Silk Cachet
Zaso Silk Cachet
Irish Times First Day Cover
Christmas 1981
Issued 18th November 1981
Centenary of the 1881 Land Law Act
Issued 10th December 1981
Hibernian Stamp Company First Day Cover
1982
Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1982
Issued 4th May 1982
Colorano Silk Cachets
Charles J. Kickham-Literary and Musical
Issued 16th June 1982
Colorano Silk Cachet
Grattan’s Parliament
Issued 14th October 1982
Colorano Silk Cachet
Centenary of the Birth of Eamon De Valera
Issued 14th October 1982
Zaso Silk Cachet
1983
1983 Anniversaries
Issued 11th August 1983
Colorano Silk Cachet
1984
150th Anniversary of Irish Railways
Issued 30th January 1984
Centenary of the Birth of John McCormack
Issued 6th June 1984
Joint Issue with the USA
Colorano Silk Cachet
Centenary of the GAA
Issued 23rd August 1984
Bi-Centenary of the Post-Office
Issued 19th October 1984
Colorano Silk Cachet
1985
1985 Anniversaries
Issued 20th June 1985
Colorano Silk Cachet
1986
1986 Anniversaries
Issued 21st August 1986
Colorano Silk Cachet
1987
1987 Anniversaries
Issued 1st October 1987
1988
1988 Anniversaries
Issued 7th April 1988
Irish Security Forces
Issued 23rd August 1988
Spanish Armada 400th Anniversary
Issued 6th October 1988
1989
Transport in Ireland Motorcars
Issued 11th April 1989
1,300th Death Anniversary of St. Kilian, Coleman and Totnan:
Issued 15th June 1989
Joint Issue with Germany
Postcard
1990
Williamite Wars Part 1
Issued 5th April 1990
Michael Collins
Issued 21st June 1990
Irish Theatre
Issued 18th October 1990
1991
75th Anniversary of the Easter Rising
Issued 3rd April 1991
Dublin 1991 European City of Culture
Issued 11th April 1991
Williamite Wars Part 2
Issued 14th May 1991
1991 Anniversaries
Issued 2nd July 1991
1993
Gaelic Culture
Issued 8th July 1993
1994
Parliamentary Anniversaries
Issued 27th April 1994
Irish Nobel Prize Winners
Issued 18th October 1994
1995
Military Uniforms
Issued 15th May 1995
250th Anniversary of the Battle of Fontenoy
Issued 15th May 1995
Joint Issue with Belgium
1996
Famous Women
Issued 2nd April 1996
1996 Anniversaries
Issued 4th July 1996
Irish Naval Service
Issued 18th July 1996
1997
75th Anniversary of Irish Independence
Issued 18th February 1997
150th Anniversary of the Irish Famine
Issued 14th May 1997
1997 Anniversaries
Issued 1st July 1997
75th Anniversary of Irish Independence
Issued 27th August 1997
Marshall Islands
Issued 15th October 1997
1998
Bi-Centenary of 1798
Issued 6th May 1998
Democracy
Issued 2nd June 1998
1999
Irish Immigration to the US
Issued 26th February 1999
Joint Issue with the USA
1999 Anniversaries
Issued 29th April 1999
Famous Irish Actors
Issued 16th November 1999
2000
Military Airplanes
Issued 9th October 2000
2001
450th Anniversary of Marsh´s Library
First Book Printed in Ireland
Issued 14th March 2001
Nine Years War
Issued 10th July 2001
2002
Brian Boru
Issued 9th July 2002
Centenary of the Death of Archbishop T. Croke
Issued 17th November 2002
2003
Centenary of the Ford Motor Company
Issued 30th June 2003
Bi-Centenary of the Rebellion of 1803
Issued 29th July 2003
150th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Ireland
Issued 9th September 2003
100th Anniversary of the Birth of Frank O´Connor
Issued 16th September 2003
Irish Mariners
Issued 30th September 2003
2004
Presidency of the European Union
Issued 15th January 2004
100th Anniversary of the Abbey Theatre
Issued 27th February 2004
The Irish College in Paris
Issued 26th June 2004
300th Anniversary of the Quakers in Ireland
Issued 21st October 2004
2005
Centenary of the Birth of Erskine Childers
Issued 10th October 2005
50th Anniversary of Ireland´s Membership of the United Nations
Issued 14th October 2005
Centenary of Arthur Griffith’s Policy
Issued 21st November 2005
2006
Irish Celtic Scholars
Issued 6th June 2006
The Somme 90th Anniversary
Issued 1st July 2006
50th Anniversary of Ronnie Delaney winning a Gold Medal
In the 1,500 metres in the Melbourne Olympic Games
Issued 16th August 2006
Centenary of the Death of Michael Cusack
Issued 23rd August 2006
Centenary of the Death of Michael Davitt
Issued 5th September 2006
25th Anniversary of the National Concert Hall
Issued 8th September 2006
2007
Flight of the Earls
Issued 23rd February 2007
Miniature Sheets
Bi-Centenary of the Birth of James Fintan Lawlor
Issued 18th September 2007
2008
50th Anniversary of the First Irish Defence Forces UN Mission
Issued 26th June 2008
150th Anniversary of the First Transatlantic Cable Message from
Europe to America
Issued 15th August 2008
100th Anniversary of the State Pension
Issued 19th September 2008
Centenary of the National University of Ireland
Issued 19th September 2008
100th Anniversary of St. Enda’s School
Issued 25th September 2008
Irish Music Bands
Issued 10th October 2008
Irish Dance
Issued 7th November 2008
Joint Issued with Spain
Spanish First Day Cover
2009
150th Anniversary of the Irish Times
Issued 27th March 2009
Centenary of the ITGWU
Issued 30th April 2009
Europa-Astronomy
Issued 15th May 2009
Centenary of the Birrell Land Act
Issued 15th July 2009
Classical Composers
Issued 14th August 2009
Plantation of Ulster
Issued 4th September 2009
2010
150th Anniversary of the Birth of Douglas Hyde
Issued 21st January 2010
Douglas Hyde was born on 17th January 1860 in Castlerea, County Roscommon and grew up in Frenchpark, County Roscommon. He attended Trinity College where he became fluent in French, Latin, German, Greek and Hebrew graduating in 1884 as a modulator in modern literature. Douglas Hyde was the outstanding figure in the struggle for the preservation and extension of the Irish language. He helped establish the Gaelic Journal in 1892 and wrote a manifesto called, “The Necessity for De-Anglicising the Irish Nation” arguing that Ireland should follow its own traditions in language, literature and dress. Douglas Hyde was co-founder and First President (1893-1915) of the Gaelic League, the national movement for the revival of the Irish language. In 1909, he became the first professor of modern Irish at University College Dublin and held the chair until his retirement in 1932. His most important works of scholarship are; “The Love Songs of Connacht” (1893) and a “Literary History of Ireland” (1899). Other works include “The Bursting of the Bubble and other Irish Plays” (1905) and “Legends of Saints and Sinners” (1915). In April 1938 by now retired from academia, Douglas Hyde was plucked from retirement by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and appointed to the Seanad. He was then chosen after inter-party negotiations to be the First President of Ireland and inaugurated on 16th June 1938. He set a precedent by reciting the Presidential Declaration of Office in Irish. His recitation in Roscommon Irish is one of a few recordings of a dialect of which Douglas Hyde was one of the last speakers. On 13th November 1938, he attended a soccer match between Ireland and Poland at Dalymount Park in Dublin. This was seen as breaching the GAA´s ban on foreign games and he was subsequently removed as patron of the GAA, an honour he had held since 1902. One of Douglas Hyde´s last presidential acts was a visit to the German Ambassador Eduard Hempel on 3rd May 1945 to offer his formal condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler. Douglas Hyde left office on 25th June 1945 without seeking a second term. He died on 12th July 1949.
25th Anniversary of Gaisce-The President´s Award
Issued 11th March 2010
Gaisce, the President´s Award is the most prestigious award for young people aged 15 to 25. The award is a self-directed personal development programme of which participants supported and mentored by a more experienced person such as a volunteer or a President Award leader set and achieve a personal challenge over a period of time. Gaisce is an old Irish word which means a great achievement and the programme challenges young people to set and pursue personal goals in four different areas of activity; community involvement, personal skills, physical recreation and adventure journey. There are three levels in the Award, starting with bronze and progressing to silver and gold with the time and maturity required increasing as the participant moves from bronze to the gold Award. The minimum period to complete the bronze Award is 26 weeks and for gold this increases to 78 weeks.
Centenary of the Countrywomen´s Association
Issued 25th March 2010
The first branch of the Society of United Irishwomen was founded in 1910 by Anita Lett in County Wexford to advocate for social and educational opportunities for women and to improve the standard of rural and urban life in Ireland. In 1935, the society changed its name to the Irish Countrywomen´s Association (ICA). Working against the antifeminism of 20th century Ireland, the association worked on teaching and promoting rural housewives to establish home industries, maintain a hygienic home, provide a healthy diet for their families and take an active role in public and intellectual life. During the 20th century, the ICA was involved in the promotion of good health, education and access to basic utilities throughout Ireland. The association runs courses in crafts and skills at its centre “An Grianán in County Louth. This centre was purchased in 1953. The ICA is one of the oldest societies of its kind in the world and the largest women´s organisation in Ireland with over 6,000 members and over 440 guilds across the country. Members learn more skills, participate in local charity initiatives and get involved in their local community. The organisation ensures that women´s interest and family policies are at the forefront of government policy. It also nurtures the Irish language and culture and through teaching and practice preserve the long tradition of heritage crafts.
Celtic Crosses
Issued 8th April 2010
All over Ireland, Celtic Crosses rest in churchyards evoking the spirit of the Irish people. Since the 6th century, these distinctive ringed crosses have appeared as historic landmarks as well as decorative elements on ancient manuscripts, art treasures and monuments. In Irish, the Celtic Cross of Ireland is known as the Cheilteach. Along with ancient High Crosses, these stone carvings were made to honour the dead and mark hallowed ground. It is also believed in some circles that the crosses have a pagan ancestry, the ringed centre of each monument is thought to symbolise the sun which the pagans worshipped in their nature rituals. Over time any connection there might have been between the Celtic Cross and paganism faded into the mists of time. Ireland through St. Patrick converted to Christianity and the ringed cross became a holy symbol. The artistic design of these crosses often include animal symbols and woven patterns known as Celtic interlace. In early medieval times, monks and metalsmiths employed by wealthy citizens were often the creators of masterpieces decorated with symbols and knot work. Famous examples include the Tara Brooch and the Book of Kells. The four stamps on the First Day Cover feature the Cross of Monasterboice Abbey, County Louth, the Cross of Carndonagh, County Donegal, the Cross of Drumcliffe, County Sligo and the Cross of Ahenny, County Tipperary.
Centenary of the Birth of Máirtín O´Doireáin
Issued 27th May 2010
Máirtín O´Doireáin was born on 26th November 1910 in the Aran Islands. Educated at the local national school, he left the Aran Islands to join the post-office in Galway in January 1928. He was involved with the Irish language movement during the 1920s and 1930s and was secretary of the Galway branch of the Gaelic League. In July 1937, he moved to Dublin to work as a clerical officer in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. In 1938, Máirtín O´Doireáin began writing poetry and published his first collection “Coinnle Geala” in 1942 followed by Dánta Aniar both at his own expense. His early lyrics celebrate the traditional virtues of island life and mourn its passing because of modernisation and population shifts towards the the major cities. One of the best known of these poems is “Stoite” (uprooted). In the 1950s and early 1960s, he published his two most significant collections; Ó Mórna agus Dánta Eile (1957) and Ár Ré Dhearóil (1962) charting the life of a tyrant based on traditional accounts of a 19th century landlord´s agent from the Aran Islands. Máirtín O´Doireáin received the Irish-American Cultural Institute Award in 1967 and was made a member of the Irish Academy of Letters in 1970. In 1977, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the National University of Ireland. He died on 19th March 1988 in Dublin.
150th Anniversary of the Birth of Roderic O´Connor
Issued 27th May 2010
Roderic O´Connor the Irish artist was born on 17th October 1860 in Milltown, Castleplunket, County Roscommon. He studied at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Art in Dublin and later in Antwerp before going to Paris where he was influenced by the Impressionists. He was a member of the School of Pont-Aven a group of artists established in the Brehon town of Pont-Aven between 1888 and 1894. These artists showed their work in the exhibition entitled “Symbolist and Synthetist Painters” organised at the Cafe Volpini in Paris in 1889. Roderic O´Connor died in Neuil-Sur_Layon, France on 18th March 1940. It was only after his death that he was recognised as the leading pioneer of Post-Impressionism among English speaking artists. His paintings include Still Life with Bottles, Iris, Red Roofs, Yellow Landscape and Landscape an oil on canvas which sold in March 2011 at Sotheby´s for 383,993 pounds, significantly higher than the estimate price.
Legendary Showbands
23rd September 2010
This First Day Cover pays tribute to a popular era throughout Ireland when the showbands were the highlight of the social week in local dance halls. In the heyday of the showbands dating roughly from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s an estimated 1,500 bands of various musical genres travelled the country many playing five shows a week in vast ballrooms. Members of the top showbands were then earning up to five times the average weekly wage. In an era when the Catholic Church still held an enormous sway over social behaviour, the annual arrival of Lent dictated a migration to foreign shores for many showbands. Church law dictated that every ballroom and dancehall had to close for 40 nights from Shrove Tuesday onwards with the exception of St. Patrick´s Day, one of the biggest nights of the year. Everywhere was open and showbands were in big demand. The incredible rise of the showbands created an empire industry that employed upwards of 10,000 people at its height. The four stamps on the First Day Cover show images of; The Miami Showband, The Drifters Showband, The Royal Showband and The Freshmen.
Centenary of the Automobile Association Ireland
Issued 14th October 2010
The Automobile Association (AA) was founded in 1910 and provides rescue services, personal insurance and travel, technical and information services. The AA provides emergency rescue for members in their home and on the road and provides insurance to over 225,000 Irish customers . Its branded rescue product AA Membership is held by over 300,000 members. Through its breakdown service, the AA attends about 120,000 car break downs every year with 80% of these being fixed on the spot.
Ireland´s Role in Chilean Independence
Issued 28th October 2010
Joint Issue with Chile
The two stamps on this First Day Cover celebrate two Irishmen who played a crucial role in Chile´s struggle for Independence from Spain, Bernardo O´Higgins and John MacKenna. Bernardo O´Higgins whose roots trace back to County Sligo is regarded as the Liberator of Chile and is widely celebrated by the Chilean Nation. A monument to him stands in Dublin´s Merrion Square. The son of the Irish-born Governor of Chile, he was a leading figure in the movement to overthrow the ruling Spanish administration and was the first Head of State of an Independent Chile. Among the works of his government were the construction of primary schools, the re-opening of the National Institute and the National Library as well as the creation of the Military School. He also ordered the creation of the current Chilean Flag and National Anthem. The abolition of the titles of nobility and the suppression of Coats of Arms brought Bernardo O´Higgins into conflict with the Creole Aristocracy. To avoid a greater confrontation, he abdicated on 28th January 1823 and went into exile in Lima, Peru. He died on 24th October 1842. John MacKenna from County Monaghan was a key military figure and Commandant General of the Chilean Army. He is credited with a famous victory over superior forces at Membrillo. After a coup in 1814, he was exiled to Argentina and died in a duel in Buenos Aires.
2011
Women´s Rights
Issued 3rd March 2011
This First Day Cover was issued to celebrate International Women´s Day and the founding of the Irish Women´s Suffrage Movement. The 55c stamp is designed in the style of the suffrage handbill of the early 20th century while a purple presentation of the female symbol adorns the 82c stamp.
International Women´s Day is a holiday celebrated on 8th March as a focal point in the Women´s Rights Movement. It gives focus to issues such as gender, equality, reproductive rights and violence against women. The First National Women´s Day was observed in the United States on 28th February 1909. The Socialist Party of America designated the day in honour of the 1908 garment worker´s strike in New York where women protested against working conditions. This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women´s Conference to propose a special Women´s Day be organised annually albeit with no specific date. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, it was made a national holiday on 8th March and remained predominately a communist holiday until circa 1967. The day re-emerged as a day of activism and is sometimes known in Europe as the Women´s International Day of Struggle. In the 1970s and 1980s, women´s groups were joined by leftists and labour organisations in calling for equal pay, equal economic opportunity, equal rights, reproductive rights, subsidised child care and the prevention of violence against women. International Women´s Day was officially recognised by the United Nations in 1977.
In 1847, Anna Haslam founded the Dublin Women´s Suffrage Association with the sole purpose of securing women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. In 1866, the first petition for suffrage was signed and brought to parliament. While this bid was unsuccessful, progress was made when the Local Government Act 1894 was signed into law. It gave women who owned property of ten pounds in value the right to vote in local elections but not parliamentary. Around the turn of the century, the suffrage movement faded into the background as politics captured the media´s attention. Close ties between Irish suffragettes with their English counterparts led many Irish men to view them as being allied with the enemy. In 1908, Hanna and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins founded the Irish Women´s Franchise League. On 13th June 1912, they began their militant campaign. Eight members including Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington smashed the windows of the General Post Office, the Custom House and Dublin Castle. The women were all arrested and sentenced to between a month and six months in jail. There was little support for them even when they went on hunger strike. The outbreak of the First World War brought great changes to both Home Rule and Women´s Suffrage. A grateful British government surprised at what women could do when asked rewarded them by introducing the Representation of the People Act 1918 which ushered in universal suffrage for the first time. However it was not without conditions. It gave women the right to vote but only certain women. They could only cast their ballot if they were over the age of thirty and either owned property of a value of five pounds or more or had a husband who did or had a university education. True suffrage was not achieved until the birth of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Irish Amateur Boxing
Issued 14th April 2011
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) was founded in 1911. As an independent nation, Ireland entered a team in the Olympics for the first time in Paris in 1924 and also entered teams in Amsterdam in 1928 and in Los Angeles in 1932. However no medals were won in these first three ventures into Olympic boxing. In 1939, the Association built the National Boxing Stadium in the heart of Dublin City. The project was largely completed due to the voluntary work of boxing enthusiasts. Fans and boxing officials worked together and organised carnivals, boxing shows and various other fund raising schemes to generate 12,000 to build the stadium. In March 1939, the 2,000 seater stadium hosted its first major event, the National Senior Championships. One month later, the IABA hosted the European Senior Boxing Championships. Ireland claimed two gold medals and a bronze at this event. Since that time, Ireland has compiled a total of 50 medals at the European Senior Championships. In the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, John McNally won Ireland´s first Olympic boxing medal, a silver in the bantamweight division. Four years later, at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, Irish boxers took home a silver and three bronze medals. Ireland also won a bronze medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Then in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Michael Carruth made national history by winning a gold medal in the welterweight division. Since 1992, the IABA has won 15 medals at the European Senior Championships and four medals at the World Senior Championships. Ireland won a total of seven medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games which accounts for all but one of Ireland´s Olympic podium appearances. Katie Taylor has elevated Irish boxing to another level. She won gold in the 2012 London Olympic Games, five World Championships, six European Championships, five European Union Championships and three AIBA World Elite Female Boxer of the Year Awards, 2008, 2010 and 2012. She is arguably the greatest boxer in the history of Women´s Amateur Boxing.
Year of Craft
Issued 12th May 2011
The Crafts Council of Ireland designated 2011 as the Year of Craft to mark the 40th anniversary of the Craft´s Council of Ireland and to promote and celebrate the talents of craftspeople living and working throughout Ireland. The five stamps on the First Day Cover feature craftwork from; Deirdre McLoughlin from Dublin who uses ceramics in her work, Róisín de Buitléar from Dublin who works with glass, Inga Reed from County Kilkenny who makes jewellery, Dr. Helen McAllister from Dublin who works with embroidered textiles and Liam Flynn from Abbeyfeale, County Limerick a wood turner.
National Parks
Issued 6th June 2011
This First Day Cover commemorates the National Parks of Ireland. The six stamps feature photographs by Walter Pfeiffer of Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal, Ballycroy National Park, County Mayo, Connemara National Park, County Galway, the Burren National Park, County Clare, Wicklow Mountains National Park, County Wicklow and Killarney National Park, County Kerry.
Centenary of the Birth of Brian Ó Nolan
Issued 6th October 2011
Brian Ó Nolan, Irish novelist, journalist and humourist was born on 5th October 1911 in Strabane, County Tyrone. He was better known by his pseudonyms, Flann O´Brien and Myles na gCopaleen. He was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin and University College Dublin where he started his literary career by contributing to the UCD magazine Comhthrom Féinne. Brian Ó Nolan joined the Irish Civil Service in 1935 where he worked in town planning until his retirement in 1953. The Civil Service prohibited the writing of articles and letters on current affairs, so he used a variety of pseudonyms writing satirical letters to newspapers sometimes criticising his own letters using different names. His novels were published under the pseudonym Flann O´Brien. His first one, “At Swim-Two Birds” is regarded as a masterpiece. “The Third Policeman” written in 1939-1940 was published posthumously. Other works include “The Hard Life” (1961), “The Dalkey Archive” (1965), “An Bheal Bocht” written in Irish in 1941 and translated into English in 1973 as “the Poor Mouth.” Brian O´Nolan wrote two plays, “Thirst” and “Faustus Kelly” which was produced in the Abbey Theatre in 1943 using the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. Brian O´Nolan wrote a column for the Irish Times under the title Cruiskeen Lawn. This column first appeared on 4th October 1940, continuing right up to the time of his death in Dublin on 1st April 1966.
Centenary of the Birth of Cearbhall O’Dálaigh
Issued 10th November 2011
Cearbhall O´Dálaigh was born on 12th February 1911 in Bray, County Wicklow. He was a committed Fianna Fáil supporter who served on the party´s National Executive in the 1930s. He became Ireland´s youngest Attorney General in 1946 serving until 1948. He was re-appointed Attorney General Of Ireland in 1951. In 1953, Cearbhall O´Dálaigh was nominated as the youngest ever member of the Supreme Court. Less than a decade later, he became Chief Justice of Ireland. When Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1972, Taoiseach Jack Lynch nominated O´Dálaigh as Ireland´s judge on the European Court of Justice. When President Childers died suddenly in 1974, all the parties agreed to nominate him to replace him as President of Ireland. Cearbhall O´Dálaigh´s decision in 1976 to exercise his constitutional prerogative to refer a bill to the Supreme Court brought him into conflict with the Fine Gael/Labour National Coalition. The government intended to introduce legislation extending the maximum period of detention without charge from two to seven days. O´Dálaigh referred the resulting Emergency Power´s Bill to the Supreme Court. When the court ruled the bill was constitutional, he signed it into law on 16th October 1976. On the same day, an IRA bomb in Mountmellick killed a member of the Garda Siochána. O´Dálaigh´s actions were seen by government to have contributed to the killing of the Garda given his delay in signing the bill into law. On the following day, Minster of Defence Paddy Donegan while visiting a barracks in Mullingar attacked the President calling him “A thundering disgrace.” Cearbhall O´Dálaigh considered the relationship between the President as Commander-In-Chief of the Defence Forces and the Minster of Defence had been broken by the comments of the minster in front of the Army Chief of Staff and other high-ranking officers. Donegan offered his resignation but Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave refused to accept it. This proved the final straw for O´Dálaigh. He resigned from the Presidency on 22nd October 1976 to protect the dignity and independence of the Presidency as an institution. He died on 21st March 1978, less than two years after his resignation. Cearbhall O´Dálaigh was buried in Sneem, County Kerry.
50th Anniversary of the First RTE Broadcast
Issued 24th November 2011
Ireland´s first TV Channel Telefís Éireann now known as RTE One began broadcasting on 31st December 1961 at 7pm. Ireland one of the first countries in Europe to adopt radio communications was a latecomer to television. Northern Ireland already had a limited service through UTV and BBC Northern Ireland but Éamonn de Valera was wary of television and considered it a luxury the Irish government could not afford. When Séan Lemass succeeded de Valera in 1959, the wheels for Telefís Éireann were put in motion with Eamonn Andrews as Chairman. Launched on 16th DDecember 1961, Telefís Éireann´s original plans to open on 25th December of that year were cancelled to give staff time off for Christmas. President de Valera gave the opening address and stated, “Never before was there in the hands of men an instrument so powerful to influence the thoughts and actions of the multitude.” He was followed by other messages from Cardinal Dalton and Lemass himself. The first programme hosted by Eamonn Andrews was a gala night countdown to the New Year. It featured a live concert from a ball at Dublin´s Gresham Hotel and also filmed the public dancing outside the hotel in the snow on O´Connell Street. Other appearances included Siobhán McKenna, Mícheál MacLiammóir, Jimmy O´Dea, Maureen Potter, Micheál O´Hehir, Patrick Hogan and the Artane Boys Band.
2012
Centenary of the Sinking of RMS Titanic
Issued 12th April 2012
RMS Titanic operated by the White Star Line sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15th April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard about 1,517 died. Four days earlier on 11th April 1912, RMS Titanic arrived at Cobh, County Cork where in all 123 passengers boarded, three First Class, seven Second Class and 113 Third Class. The Titanic was very much an Irish ship. It was designed by an Irishman, Thomas Andrews (born in 1873 in Comber, County Down) and built by Irishmen mainly Protestant at the Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast. The Titanic´s carpets were made in Abbeyleix, County Laois and the ginger ale and soda water was provided by the Dublin firm of Cantrell & Cochrane. Approximately 90 minutes after its arrival in Cobh, Captain Edward J. Smith gave orders to haul anchor and make for America. As the Titanic steamed westwards along the Irish coast, Eugene Daly (a Titanic survivor) from County Westmeath began playing “Erin´s Lament on his Uilleann Pipes. Jeremiah Burke nineteen years old from Glanmire, County Cork hurled a bottle into the sea with a message inside, “Goodbye to all; Burke of Glanmire, Cork.” The bottle was found washed up on the shore of his native county the following year, an eerie reminder of his short life. At least 79 of the 1,517 passengers and crew who perished when RMS Titanic sank were born in Ireland.
Centenary of the Death of Bram Stoker
Issued 19th April 2012
Bram Stoker was born on 8th November 1847 in Clontarf, County Dublin. Due to illness, he could not stand or walk until he was seven years old. He went on to become an outstanding athlete at Trinity College (1864-1870) where he earned a degree in mathematics and was President of the Philosophical Society. He spent ten years in the Civil Service in Dublin Castle during which he was also an unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail. In 1878, Bram Stoker became the English actor Henry Irving´s manager and secretary. He occupied this post for the next 27 years. His recollections would go on to give rise to the book, “Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving” (1906). In 1879, Bram Stoker published his first book, “The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland,” a handbook in legal administration. Turning to fiction later in life, he published his first novel, “The Snake´s Pass,” a romantic thriller set in bleak Western Ireland in 1890. Bram Stoker wrote other numerous novels and short stories including, “The Passage of the Serpent” (1890), “The Mystery of the Sea” (1902), “The Jewel of the Seven Stars” (1904) and “The Lady in the Shroud” (1909). He is also credited with the book “Famous Imposters” in which he holds among other things, the quaint theory that Queen Elizabeth I of England was a man in disguise. But Bram Stoker´s most famous work is “Dracula,” the vampire count of Transylvania. This novel was one of the best selling books throughout the 20th century and an inspiration for cinema. Bram Stoker died on 20th April 1912 in London.
150th Anniversary of Dublin Fire Brigade
28th June 2012
Dublin Fire Brigade came into existence following the passing of the Dublin Corporation Fire Brigade Act of 1862. The foundling brigade consisted of 24 men housed in a station off Winetavern Street near Christchurch. The organisations first Chief Fire Officer was Mr. Ingram. The Dublin Fire Brigade Ambulance Service was formed in 1898 and answered 537 calls in its first year. Today it responds to well over 100,000 emergency calls per annum. It is still the only ambulance service in Europe to be crewed by Firefighter/Paramedics. The brigade´s headquarters was opened in Tara Street in 1907 housing firemen and their families for many years. The headquarters at Tara Street was finally closed in 1998 with the development of a new station at nearby Townsend Street. Through its early years, the brigade relied on teams of horses to pull engines through the city streets and even after the the first motorised fire engine was delivered in 1909, it would be 1925 before the last horse left the service of the brigade. Today Dublin Fire Brigade employs 1,000 personnel, operates 20 fire engines and 12 ambulances across the city and answers more than 133,000 fire, ambulance and rescue calls every year. The four stamps on the First Day Cover depict fires, road accidents, water rescues and chemical fires.
Myths and Legends
Issued 13th September 2012
This First Day Cover with its heroic four stamp set honours Ireland´s rich story telling tradition and features; the Children of Lir, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Fionn and the Salmon of Knowledge and the Naming of Cúchulainn. The Children of Lir tells the story of the four children of the King Lir who were changed into swans by their evil stepmother. They were condemned to live as swans until the bell of a new God tolled. A church bell broke the spell many years later and the children returned to human form, aged quickly and died. Deirdre of the Sorrows tells the story of the love between Naoise and Deirdre and the jealous rage of the King Conor McNessa. The pair fled to Scotland, were tricked into returning to Ireland where Naoise was slain by Conor. Stricken with grief, Deirdre then killed herself. The Salmon of Knowledge tells of when Fionn MacCumhaill accidently tasted the Salmon of Knowledge and was blessed with great wisdom. The Naming of Cúchulainn tells the story of Setanta, the childhood name of Cúchulainn. Setanta was invited to a feast at the blacksmith Culann´s house and used his hurley and sliotar to kill Culann´s vicious guard dog when it attacked him. Setanta then promised to guard Culann until a new guard dog could be found. This is how he took the name Cúchulainn, the hound of Culann.
2013
Centenary of the General Lockout
Issued 22nd August 2013
Many of Dublin´s workers lived in terrible conditions in tenements. Poverty was perpetuated by the lack of work for unskilled workers, who did not have any form of representation before trade unions were founded. The unskilled workers often had to compete with one another for work everyday with the job generally going to whoever agreed to work for the lowest wages. Unskilled workers in Dublin were very much at the mercy of their employers. Employers who suspected workers of trying to organise themselves would blacklist them to deny them any chance of future employment. James Larkin was the main champion on the side of the workers. He set out to organise the unskilled workers and set up the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU). It was the first trade union to cater for skilled and unskilled workers. In its first few months, it quickly gained popularity and soon spread to other cities. James Larkin believed in bringing about a socialist revolution by the establishment of trade unions and calling general strikes. Another important figure in the cause was James Connolly, a talented orator and writer who became known for his speeches on the streets of Dublin in support of socialism and Irish Nationalism. In 1912, Larkin and Connolly formed the Irish Labour Party. Among the employers in Ireland opposed to trade unions was William Martin Murphy, Chairman of the Dublin Tramway Company and owner of Clery´s Department Store and the Imperial Hotel. He also controlled the Irish Independent, Evening Herald and Irish Catholic newspapers and was a major shareholder in the B&I Line. In July 1913, Murphy presided over a meeting of 300 employers during which a collective response to the rise of trade unions was agreed. Murphy and the employers were determined not to allow the ITGWU to unionise the Dublin workforce. On 15th August 1913, Murphy dismissed 40 workers he suspected of ITGWU membership, followed by another 300 over the next week. The resulting industrial dispute which began on the 26th August 1913 and lasted until the 18th January 1914 is often viewed as the most severe industrial dispute in Irish history. Employers in Dublin locked out their workers and employed blackleg labour from Britain and elsewhere in Ireland. The church supported the employers and condemned Larkin as a socialist revolutionary. Strikers used mass pickets and intimidation against strike breakers. The Dublin Metropolitan Police carried out baton charges at worker´s rallies. On 31st August 1913, they attacked a meeting on Sackville Street (now O´Connell Street). It caused the deaths of two workers and over 300 more were injured. This event is remembered as Bloody Sunday. Another worker, Alice Brady was later shot dead by a strike breaker as she brought home a food parcel from the union office. For seven months, the lockout affected tens of thousands of Dublin families. It ended in January 1914, when the Trade Union Congress in Britain rejected Larkin and Connolly´s request for a sympathetic strike. (This is a strike by a body of workers, not because of grievances against their own employer but by way of endorsing and helping another group of workers who are on strike). Most workers many of whom were on the brink of starvation went back to work and signed pledges not to join the ITGWU. The union was badly damaged by its defeat in the lockout and many of its blacklisted members joined the British Army, since they had no other source of pay to support their families and they found themselves in the trenches of the First World War within the year. Although the actions of the ITGWU had been unsuccessful, they marked a watershed in Irish labour history. The principle of union action had been firmly established and no future employer such as William Martin Murphy would ever try to break a union. The lockout damaged businesses in Dublin and many were forced to declare bankruptcy.
Irish Defence Forces
Issued 12th September 2013
This First Day Cover and its four stamps honour the overseas service by the Irish Defence Forces for more than sixty years. The stamps depict the four branches of the forces; the Army, Naval Service, Air Corps and Reserve Force and symbolise the ethos of the Defence Forces, defending, protecting and supporting at home and overseas. Ireland became a member of the United Nations in 1955 and in 1958 sent military observers on a United Nation´s mission to the Middle East. This was the beginning of the Defence Forces involvement in overseas service. The first troop mission occurred on 27th July 1960, when the 32th Battalion was deployed to the Congo. This was the beginning of a four year commitment to service in the Congo where over 6,000 Irishmen served and in which 26 Irish soldiers lost their lives. In April 1964, the first Irish unit was sent to Cyprus to keep the peace between the Turkish and Greek communities. It turned out to be the longest overseas mission by far and participation lasted until May 2005. The bulk of the tours of duty have been completed by infantry units in major force missions deployed in Lebanon and lately in Liberia and Kosovo.
Centenary of the Irish Volunteer Force
Issued 3rd October 2013
The Third Home Rule Bill introduced in 1912 lead to the crisis in Ireland between the Irish Catholic Nationalists and Unionists in Ulster. In January 1913, the Ulster Unionists were formed to resist the granting of Home Rule by force of arms if necessary. Nationalist politicians claimed their establishment was approved and financed by members of the Conservative Party. The Irish Volunteer Organisation was publicly launched on 25th November 1913 with their first public meeting and enrolment rally at the Rotunda in Dublin. Five thousand enlistment forms were brought for distribution and handed out in books of one hundred to each of the stewards. Everyone of the stewards and and officials wore on their lapel a small silken bow the centre of which was white, on one side was green and on the other side orange. The chosen leader of the Irish Volunteers was Eoin MacNeill, Professor of Early and Medieval History at University College, Dublin. The hall was filled to its 4,000 capacity with a further 3,000 spilling onto the grounds outside. Speakers at the rally included MacNeill, Pádraig Pearse and Michael Davitt, son of the Land League leader of the same name. Over the course of the following months, the movement spread throughout the country with thousands more joining every week. Shortly after the formation of the Irish Volunteers, the British Parliament banned the importation of arms into Ireland. Then in April 1914, the Ulster Volunteers successfully imported 24,000 rifles in the Larne Gun Running event. The Irish Volunteers realised it too would have to follow suit if they were to be taken as a serious force. Roger Casement, O´Rahilly and Bulmer Hobson worked together to co-ordinate a daylight gun-running expedition to Howth , just north of Dublin. The plan worked and Erskine Childers brought nearly 1,000 rifles purchased from Germany to the harbour aboard his yacht, the Asgard and distributed them to the waiting Volunteers. The remainder of the guns smuggled from Germany for the Irish Volunteers were landed at Kilcoole a week later by Thomas Myles. The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 provided a serious split in the organisation. John Redmond in the interest of ensuring the enactment of the Home Rule Act of 1914 encouraged the Volunteers to support the British and join Irish Regiments. The vast majority answered his call and supported the war effort by enlisting. The official stance of the Irish Volunteers was that action would only be taken if the Dublin Castle administration attempted to disarm the Volunteers. The Irish Republican Brotherhood however was determined to use the Volunteers for offensive action while Britain was tied up in a war. Their plan was to circumvent MacNeill´s command, instigating a rising and to get him onboard once the insurrection had started. Pearse issued orders for three days of parades and manoeuvres, a thinly disguised order for the rebellion. MacNeill soon discovered the real intent behind the order and attempted to stop all actions by the Volunteers. He succeeded only in putting the Easter Rising off for a day and limiting it to about 1,000 active participants within Dublin and a very limited action elsewhere.
Steps towards reorganising the Irish Volunteers were taken during 1917. De Valera was elected President. Sinn Féin candidates elected in the General Election of 1918 set up an independent Dáil Éireann and the Irish Volunteers were the army of the new government. In practice the Dáil had great difficulty controlling the Irish Volunteers. Their actions on the 21st January 1919, on the very day the first Dáil was meeting when members of the Third Tipperary Brigade carried out the Soloheadbeg Ambush, killing two Royal Irish Constabulary constables triggered the start of the Irish War of Independence. The conflict soon escalated into guerrilla warfare and the Irish Volunteers became known as the Irish Republican Army. All organisations calling themselves the IRA as well as the Irish Defence Forces have their origins in the Irish Volunteers. Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Irish name of the Volunteers was retained and is the official name of the Irish Defence Forces as well as the various IRA´s.
2014
On 23rd January 2014, An Post issued a 60c stamp to commemorate the Centenary of the Irish Citizen Army. The stamp featured a platoon of ICA men with the head of Captain Jack White superimposed on the main picture. However, just ahead of the stamp issue date, a historian disputed the veracity of the image saying that the photograph was not Captain White. Given the doubts, An Post pulled the stamp on the morning of issue 23rd January 2014 with only a tiny number being sold across the counter. The stamp for the Centenary of the Irish Citizen Army was re-issued on 17th April 2014. My cover inserted below is a facsimile produced by Setanta Covers and is No.33 of 100 covers issued.
Setanta Cover
50th Anniversary of the Death of Brendan Behan
Issued 20th March 2014
Brendan Behan the Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright and Irish Republican was born on 9th February 1923 in Dublin. He was born into a staunch Republican family becoming a member of the IRA´s youth organisation Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. Two years later, he joined the IRA and was arrested in England while on an active mission and sentenced to three years in a reform school in Suffolk. He went on to write an autobiographical account of this detention in “The Borstal Boy” (1958) which became a world-wide bestseller. In 1942, Brendan Behan was deported to Dublin where he was involved in a shooting incident in which a policeman was wounded. He was convicted and sentenced to fourteen years. He served his time in Mountjoy Prison, the setting of his first play “The Quare Fellow” (1954) and later at the Curragh Military Camp, County Kildare from which he was released under a general amnesty in 1946. While incarcerated, Behan perfected his Irish which he used for his poetry and “An Giall” (1957) the initial version of his second play “The Hostage” (1958). In 1948, he went to Paris to write, returning to Dublin in 1950 where he wrote short stories and scripts for RTE. In 1953, he wrote a column in the Irish Press newspaper about Dublin. His plays were performed in London and New York where he became a celebrated personality. Behan spent an increasing amount of time in New York and was often in the company of prominent people such as Harpo Marx and Arthur Miller. He dictated his last works on tape; Brendan Behan´s Island (1962) a book of Irish anecdotes; the Scarper (1964) a novel about a smuggling adventure, first published in the Irish Press newspaper; Brendan Behan´s New York (1964) and Confessions of an Irish Rebel (1965). Brendan Behan was a long-term heavy drinker, He died on 20th March 1964 after collapsing at the Harbour Lights Bar in Echlin Street, Dublin. At his funeral, he was given a full IRA Guard of Honour which escorted his coffin. It was described as the biggest Irish funeral of all time after those of Michael Collins and Charles Stuart Parnell.
Centenary of the Founding of Cumann na mBan
Issued 3rd April 2014
Cumann na mBan translated literally as the League of Women was founded on 2nd April 1914 in Dublin by Agnes Ó´Farrelly (one of the first women professors in the National University of Ireland), Agnes McNeill, Nancy O´Rahilly, Louis Gavan Duffy, Mary Colum and Mary McSwiney. The constitution of the organisation contained explicit references to the use of force by arms if necessary to achieve Irish Independence, to advance the cause of Irish Liberty and to organise Irishwomen in the furtherance of this objective, to assist in arming and equipping a body of Irishmen for the defence of Ireland and to form a fund for those purposes to be called “The Defence of Ireland Fund.” Cumann na mBan an independent organisation of the Irish Republican Movement was actively involved in the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. Initially the membership was drawn from the middle class but gradually more and more working-class women came to be represented in the organisation. On the day of the 1916 Easter Rising, Cumann na mBan members including Winifred Carney who arrived armed with a Webley revolver and a typewriter entered the GPO with their male counterparts. By nightfall, women insurgents were established in almost all of the major rebel strongholds. The majority of them worked as Red Cross workers, couriers or procured rations for the men. They also gathered intelligence on scouting expeditions, carried despatches and transferred arms from dumps across the city to insurgent strongholds. Some women were also combatants in the Rising such as Constance Markievicz and Margaret Skinnider.
From 1916-1918, it was women who were largely in charge of Revolutionary Nationalism, campaigning for Prisoner´s Dependent´s Relief, upholding the cult of the dead 1916 Leaders, sustaining the anti-conscription movement and electioneering for Sinn Féin´s landslide victory in the 1918 General Election. The number of branches of Cumann na mBan soared from 100 in 1917 to 600 in 1918. During the War of Independence, the women played vital roles, keepers of safe houses, despatch riders and first aid workers. The Truce and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty saw the country bitterly divided but Cumann na mBan was the first Nationalist organisation to publicly reject the Treaty. The women were active during the Civil War and many of its members were imprisoned. Since the 1920s, Cumann na mBan activists supported military campaigns in the 1940s and 1950s by the IRA. They supported the Provisional wing in the 1969/1970 split in the IRA and Sinn Féin Vice President and leading Cumann na mBan member Máire Drumm was shot dead by loyalists in 1976. Today the organisation is proscribed in Northern Ireland and Great Britain and its members are counted as dissident Irish Republicans who continue to endorse the use of armed struggle in pursuit of a United Ireland.
Centenary of the Irish Citizen Army
Issued 17th April 2014
The Irish Citizen Army rose out of the ITGWU strike in 1913 in Dublin known as the Lockout characterised by vicious rioting between the strikers and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. On 31st August 1913, two workers were killed and over 300 more injured when the police baton charged a strike rally in Sackville Street. Largely as a result of this violence, James Larkin called for a worker´s militia to be formed to protect the workers from the police. Jack White a former British Army Captain volunteered to train this army and for the duration of the Lockout they were armed with sticks and bats. When the strike ended in defeat in January 1914, the original purpose of the Citizen Army was over but it was soon totally reformed under the command of James Connolly. He perceived it as a revolutionary organisation dedicated to the creation of an Irish Republic. The army´s headquarters was the ITGWU building, Liberty Hall and members both men and women were trained in the use of weapons. During the 1916 Easter Rising, 220 members of the Irish Citizen Army took up arms to achieve Irish Independence. Nine died in the fighting and the leaders James Connolly and Michael Mallin were executed following the insurrection. During the Irish War of Independence, The Irish Citizen Army operated as a support organisation to the IRA, providing weapons, medical aid and other material support. Following the Truce and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty the Irish Citizen Army adopted a stance of neutrality. Ultimately this lead to the breakup of the organisation with the majority of members joining the anti-Treaty IRA. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Irish Citizen Army was kept alive largely as an old comrades association by veterans of the 1916 Easter Rising. In 1927, uniformed Irish Citizen Army men provided a Guard of Honour at Constance Markievicz´s funeral. Their final public appearance was to accompany the funeral procession of union leader and Irish Citizen Army founding figure James Larkin in 1947.
Viking Heritage
Issued 24th April 2014
The first Viking raiders appeared in Irish waters in 795. The early targets of their raids were generally monasteries near the coast but as the raids increased in frequency, the Vikings began to plunder towns and settlements further inland. Viking settlements were subsequently established at Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick. Their direct influence on Irish affairs lasted until the arrival of the Normans in 1169. In Dublin, important Viking artefacts have been found at Wood Quay, Christchurch Place and in the Temple Bar area. Archaeological investigations in Waterford have uncovered a Viking burial site and numerous objects, including weapons and other metalwork. This First Day Cover and its two stamps feature relics from Ireland´s rich Viking Heritage. The first stamp depicts the Waterford Kite Brooch from the 11th or 12th centuries and is featured over a background map of Waterford City. This brooch is considered one of Ireland´s finest pieces of historic metalwork. The second stamp depicts a Viking sword from the 10th century which was originally found in Christchurch Place in Dublin and is pictured over an image taken from the Annals of the Four Masters, the chronicles of Irish history dating back to 1616.
Centenary of the Home Rule Act
Issued 22nd May 2014
The Government of Ireland Act 1914 also known as the Home Rule Act and before enactment the Third Home Rule Bill was an Act passed by the UK Parliament intended to provide Home Rule for Ireland. However it was suspended for a year due to the outbreak of the First World War. Subsequent events in Ireland including the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence led to further postponement of the Home Rule Act and finally meant it never came into effect. In 1920, a repealing Government of Ireland Act was passed. However this too was never to be enacted. In 1922, rather than Home Rule being introduced, Ireland was divided into two; the south to become a Democratic Republic and six counties of the north to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Centenary of the First World War
Issued 24th July 2014
The First World War from the 28th July 2014 to 11th November 1918 was a global conflict fought between two coalitions, the Allies and the Central Powers. Battles took place throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest wars in history, it ultimately resulted in an estimated 9 million soldiers dead and 23 million wounded, plus another 5 million civilian deaths from numerous causes. The war was also a major factor in the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. The Centenary of the First World War was marked over a four year period from 28th July 2014 with a series of commemorations organised across the continent of Europe and ended with the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice on 11th November 1918.
Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Thomas Davis
Issued 9th October 2014
Thomas Davis was born on 14th October 1814 in Mallow, County Cork. His father was a Welsh surgeon in the Royal Artillery and his mother an Irish Protestant. Thomas Davis attended Trinity College and from 1836-1838 he studied law in London and Europe. Although he qualified as a lawyer in 1838, he never practiced. Thomas Davis sought inspiration in the study of Gaelic Civilisation, Christian and pre-Christian. As a Protestant, he preached religious unity and promoted the ideals of the United Irishmen prior to the 1798 Rebellion. In September 1942, Thomas Davis established the Nation newspaper with Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon and made it a vehicle for promoting the Irish Language and an Irish cultural identity separate from that of Britain. He wrote patriotic verses such as “A Nation Once Again,” “The Battle of Fentenoy” and the “West´s Asleep.” His most popular songs were published in one volume in 1843 as “Spirit of the Nation.” Thomas Davis also served on the committee of the Repeal Association but became increasingly disenchanted in what he saw as its sectarian character. He and his associates, the Young Islanders also thought that Daniel O´Connell´s aims were too limited. There was an open breach between Davis and O´Connell in 1845 over the College´s Bill which proposed interdenominational university colleges. Davis wanted non-sectarian education but O´Connell denounced such as “Godless.” It is impossible to say if Thomas Davis would have supported the Young Islanders as they moved to rebellion in 1848. He died on 6th September 1845 from scarlet fever at the young age of thirty and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin. A statue of Thomas Davis created by Edward Delaney was unveiled in College Green, Dublin in 1966. The main street of his hometown Mallow is named Davis Street and contains a bronze statue of him designed by the sculptor Leo Higgins. Fort Davis at the entrance to Cork Harbour is also named after him.
2015
50th Anniversary of the Meeting of Seán Lemass and Terence O´Neill
Issued 22nd January 2015
On 14th January 1965, a meeting between the Taoiseach of Ireland Seán Lemass and the Prime Minster of Northern Ireland Terence O´Neill occurred for the first time since the partition of Ireland in 1922 at Stormont Castle. O´Neill extended an invitation to Lemass to visit Belfast in early January 1965. Lemass travelled to Belfast in secrecy. Although the meeting would be viewed as mostly positive in the Irish Republic, it received mixed reviews in the North and O´Neill an Ulster Unionist faced strong opposition from his own party for the visit. The two leaders discussed cooperation between the two states on issues such as tourism, road systems, agriculture, customs, health services and nuclear power. A few weeks later in February, O´Neill paid a reciprocal visit to Dublin.
100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings
Issued 23rd April 2015
The Gallipoli Campaign from February 1915 to January 1916 in the First World War was an Anglo-French operation against Turkey intended to force the 38-mile long Dardanelles Channel and to occupy Constantinople. The naval bombardment began on 19th February 1915 but was halted by bad weather and not resumed until 25th February 1915. On 18th March 1915, the bombardment was continued. However after three battleships had been sunk and three others damaged, the navy abandoned its attack concluding that the fleet could not succeed without military help. On 25th April 1915, the landings began on the Gallipoli Peninsula at two beaches, the Cape Helles and Anzac. Small beachheads were secured with difficulty, the troops at Anzac being held up by Turkish reinforcements under the famous Ataturk. Large British and Dominion reinforcements followed, yet little progress was made. On 6th August 1915, another landing on the west coast at Suvla Bay took place but the assault was halted. It was then decided to withdraw the military forces and abandon the enterprise. That difficult operation was carried out by stages and was successfully completed on 9th January 1916. Altogether the equivalent of some 16 British, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and French divisions took part in the campaign. British Commonwealth casualties apart from heavy losses among old naval ships were 213,980. The plan failed because of poor military leadership, faulty tactics, the inexperience of the troops, inadequate equipment and an acute shortage of shells.
Centenary of the Sinking of the Lusitania
Issued 7th May 2015
The Lusitania part of the Cunard Shipping Line was launched in 1906 to carry passengers on transatlantic voyages. The British Admiralty subsidised the ship´s construction with the understanding it would be pressed into military service if war broke out. When the First World War began in 1914, the Lusitania remained a passenger ship although it was secretly modified for war. By February 1915, German naval commanders knew that passenger ships were transporting weapons and supplies from the United States to Europe. As a result, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone and stopped following international naval “prize land” which warned ships of a submarine´s presence. Days before the Lusitania was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool in May 1915, the German Embassy in Washington posted ads in American newspapers reminding Americans that Britain and Germany were at war. They warned potential travellers that vessels carrying the flag of Great Britain were liable to destruction and should be avoided. Since it was assumed, Germany would still allow passengers to get into lifeboats prior to the attack, the warnings were largely ignored. In May 1915, the Lusitania sailed from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 passengers and crew onboard. The sinkings of merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland and reports of submarine activity prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area and recommended adopting the evasive tactic of zigzagging, changing course every four minutes at irregular intervals to confuse any attempt by U-boats to plot her course for torpedoing. The ship´s captain, William Thomas Turner chose to ignore these recommendations. On the afternoon of 7th May 1915 as the Lusitania was running parallel to the south coast of Ireland, roughly eleven miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Walter Schwieger the commanding officer of a German U-boat gave the order to fire one torpedo which struck the Lusitania on the starboard bow, just beneath the wheelhouse. Moments later a second explosion erupted from within the hull where the torpedo had struck and the ship began to founder. The crew scrambled to launch the lifeboats. In all only 6 out of 48 lifeboats were launched successfully with several more overturning and breaking apart. Eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck, the Lusitania sank with the funnels and masts the last to disappear. Of the 1,959 passengers and crew onboard, 1,195 perished. In the hours after the sinking, acts of heroism among both the survivors and the Irish rescuers who had heard word of Lusitania´s distress signals brought the survivor count to 764, nine of whom later died from their injuries. By the following morning, news of the disaster had spread around the world. While most of those lost were British or Canadian, the loss of 128 Americans in the disaster outraged many in the United States. It was fully expected that a Declaration of War would follow, but the United States government clung to its policy of neutrality. Later in 1917, the United States did cite German submarine warfare as a justification for American entry into the war.
Souvenir Sheet
Cork Philatelic and Coin Exhibition
150th Anniversary of the Birth of W. B. Yeats
Issued 11th June 2015
William Butler Yeats was born on 13th June 1865 at Sandymount, Dublin. He is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. In 1867, when Yeats was only two, his family moved to London but he spent much of his boyhood and school holidays in County Sligo with his grandparents. Here the scenery, folklore and supernatural legend would colour Yeats work and form the setting of many of his poems. In 1880, his family moved back to Dublin and in 1883, he attended the Metropolitan School of Art. When the family moved back to London in 1887, Yeats quickly became involved in the literary life of London. In 1889, he met Maud Gonne and from that moment as he wrote, “the troubling of my life began.” He fell in love with her but Maud Gonne liked and admired him but was not in love with him. Her passion was lavished on Ireland. She was an Irish patriot and a rebel. When Yeats joined in the Irish Nationalist cause, he did so partly from conviction but mostly for the love of Maud Gonne. In 1899, he asked Maud Gonne to marry him but she declined. Four years later, she married Major John MacBride, one of the rebels executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. When Yeats play “Cathleen Ni Houlihan was first performed in Dublin in 1902, Maud Gonne played the title role. Yeats first volume of verse appeared in 1887 and together with Lady Gregory, he founded the Irish Theatre which was to become the Abbey Theatre. He served as its chief playwright. His plays usually about Irish legends were performed here; “The Countess of Cathleen” (1892), “The Land of Heart´s Desire” (1894), “Cathleen Ni Houlihan” (1902), “The King´s Threshold” (1904) and “Deirdre” (1907) are among the best known. After 1910, Yeats dramatic work took a sharp turn towards a highly poetical style. His later plays were written for small audiences and were influenced by Japanese Noh plays. In 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after he received the award. Whereas Yeats received the Nobel Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his poetry especially the volumes, “The Wild Swans of Coole” (1919), “Michael Robartes and the Dancer” (1921), “The Tower” (1928), “The Winding Stair” and other poems (1933) and “Last Poems and Plays” (1940). William Butler Yeats died on 28th January 1939 while abroad and was buried at Roquebrune, France. The intention of having his body buried in Sligo was thwarted when the Second World War began in 1939. In 1948, his body was finally taken back to Sligo and buried in a little Protestant churchyard at Drumcliffe. His own epitaph reads; Cast a cold eye/On Life, On Death/ Horseman, Pass by!
Centenary of the Death of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa
Issued 30th July 2015
On 29th June 1915, Jeremiah Ó´Donovan Rossa, the Irish Fenian leader and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood died in Staten Island, New York. In America, he was famous for the dynamite campaign he waged in Britain during the 1880s. Legend has it that John Devoy wired Thomas Clarke in Dublin, “Rossa dead. What should I do ?” Clarke replied, “Send his body home at once.” Thus began the long, final and heroic journey of Jeremiah Ó´Donovan Rossa. Thomas Clarke understood that his funeral, if it took place in Ireland could ignite a Nationalist opinion in preparation for a forthcoming rebellion. In preparation for the funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery, Clarke organised a funeral committee under the auspices of the Wolfe Tone Memorial Association. The committee was a who´s who of the impending rising and included Edward Daly, James Connolly, Pádraig Pearse, Thomas McDonagh and John MacBride. The funeral procession would include members of the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, GAA and trade unions.
When the American liner “St Paul” arrived at Pier Head, Liverpool carrying the casket of Ó´Donovan Rossa, orders were given from the various organisations in America that it was not to touch English soil on its way back to Dublin for burial. Fifty members of the Irish Volunteers from Liverpool carried the casket over two miles on their shoulders from Pier Head to Nelson Dock where it was put aboard the City of Dublin boat. The remains arrived in Dublin a few days before the funeral and lay in state at City Hall. A guard of honour of Irish Volunteers surrounded the coffin where thousands came to pay their respects. Jeremiah Ó´Donovan Rossa was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery on 1st August 1915 in one of the largest funerals Dublin had ever seen. On the day of the funeral, special trains came to Dublin from all over the country. The funeral procession was led by two pipe bands, a mounted guard and accompanying the hearse were nine veteran Fenians. In the leading coaches were the widow, his daughter Eileen Ó´Donovan Rossa, Countess Markievicz, Father Michael Flanagan and others. Behind them were companies of Irish Volunteers, National Volunteers, pipe bands, men carrying pikes, teams of hurlers and representatives of national organisations and societies. As well as the hundreds of thousands of spectators, 20,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the procession which passed by College Green, O´Connell Street and out the Glasnevin Road. It took several hours to pass each point on the route. Prayers were recited at the burial by Father Michael Flanagan. After William Oman of the Irish Citizen Army played the Last Post, Pádraig Pearse made his most famous speech;
“They think they have pacified Ireland. They think they have pacified half of us and intimidated the other half. They think they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything, but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
Setanta First Day Cover
Paddy Lineen First Day Covers
Cork Philatelic Society
1,400 Anniversary of the Death of St. Columban
Issued 22nd October 2015
St. Columban (commonly called Columbanus in Latin) is recognised as one of the great pioneers in western European civilisation. He was born in Leinster in 543 a century after St. Patrick brought the Catholic faith to Ireland. He first travelled against the wishes of his distraught mother to Cleenish Island on Lough Erne, County Fermanagh where he studied under Abbot Sinell. He then entered the monastery in Bangor, County Down becoming a monk under Abbot Congall. Here he was ordained a priest and spent 30 years of seclusion and prayer at this monastery. At the age of fifty, he travelled to Gaul (modern day France) with twelve missionaries to proclaim Jesus Christ and his Gospel to Western Europe where people had fallen into barbarism. St Columban and his missionaries won wide respect for their preaching and their commitment to charity and religious life in a time characterised by clerical laxity and civil strife. Amid hardship and persecution, Columban and his followers founded monasteries throughout France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Columban openly chastised King Theuderic II who was living in an adulterous relationship and insisted he should marry. Since this threatened the power of the monarchy, he was forced into a boat and deported back to Ireland. The boat was driven off course by a storm and returned to the French mainland. St. Columban then spent the next few years travelling with monks across France, Switzerland and Southern Germany eventually settling in Northern Italy where he found favour with the King of the Lombards. In his last years, St Columban established the famous monastery of Bobbio in the Province of Piacenza. He died here on 23rd November 615 and his feast day is celebrated on this date. After his death, the few monasteries he founded expanded to over 200 new foundations. St Columban´s writings include his sermons, poetry and his monastic rule. He is remembered for his zeal, miracles, his authority over animals who listened to his commands, his rigorous monastic rule and his pastoral guide on the celebration of the Sacrament of Confession and the imposition of appropriate penances.
2016
Centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising
Issued 21st January 2016
The Centenary of the 1916 Rising generated enormous interest in Ireland and beyond. Although at the time, it was widely disapproved of by Irish opinion, it was however to prove the foundation event of the modern Irish Republic. Crushed in less than a week, it nevertheless converted much of the population of Nationalist Ireland to the cause of Independence rather than devolved Home Rule. The Proclamation together with the men that signed it and the buildings in Dublin where around 1,500 insurgents fought have all become Irish public icons. Thousands of events and activities took place across Ireland and in Irish communities further afield. Among the various State Commemorations, the Easter Rising centenary parade held on Easter Sunday 27th March 2016 was one of the largest of its kind ever held in the state involving over 3,700 military personnel while 250,000 lined the streets of the capital. RTE broadcast the event live on television and it was viewed by over 1,000,000 people. The sixteen stamps issued by An Post on four First Day Covers are grouped into four categories; Leaders and Icons, Participants, Easter Week and the Aftermath.
Setanta First Day Covers
Cathedral Stamps First Day Covers
Two Stampa 2016 Cachets
Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Charles Gavan Duffy
Issued 7th April 2016
Charles Gavan Duffy was born on 12th April 1816 in County Monaghan. In 1842, while studying law in King´s Inn, Dublin, he along with John Blake Dillon and Thomas Davis founded the “Nation,” a weekly newspaper of Irish Nationalist opinion. From the Nation, the Young Ireland movement emerged committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. In 1848, the Young Islanders attempted an insurrection. Charles Gavan Duffy was arrested along with most of the leading figures and imprisoned until 1849. In 1852, he was elected to Parliament for New Ross, County Wexford and organised an independent opposition to obstruct any government that did not support the demands of the Irish Tenant League. He retired from Irish politics in 1855 and immigrated to Australia where he practised law in Melbourne. Charles Gavan Duffy was elected to the Victoria House of Assembly in 1856 and went on to serve as Prime Minister for Victoria from 1871-72. He retired to Southern France to write his memoirs and died on 9th February 1903 in Nice.
Centenary of the Battle of the Somme
Issued 23rd June 2016
The Battle of the Somme from 1st July to 18th November 1916 was a joint operation between British and French forces intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front. They were faced with German defences that had been carefully laid out over many months. Despite a seven-day bombardment prior to attack on 1st July, the British did not achieve the quick breakthrough their military leadership had planned for and the Somme became a deadlocked battle of attrition. Over the next 141 days, the British advanced a maximum of seven miles. More than one million men from all sides were killed, wounded or captured. British casualties on the first day numbered over 57,000 of which 19,240 were killed.
Cycling in Ireland
Issued 15th September 2016
2017
Centenary of the Battle of Messines Ridge
Issued 8th June 2017
Messines Ridge located south of Ypres was captured by German forces in 1914. The ridge granted the German army a dominant position overlooking the Ypres salient. After years of suffering heavy casualties in the salient, in 1917 the Allies planned to break out. The first move was to capture the Messines Ridge. Taking the ridge would leave the Allies placed to launch their offensive to the northeast towards Passchendaele. Tunnelling work beneath the Messines began in 1916. At zero hour-3.00am on 7th June, nineteen mines were detonated beneath the German positions in an explosion that could be heard in London. Thousands of German defenders were killed or wounded. The artillery support was carefully planned. During the preliminary bombardment, air reconnaissance reported on German battery positions so they could be targeted by Allied guns as the infantry advanced during the attack. A force made up of Irish, New Zealand, Australian, Canadian and British troops took their objective within a matter of hours and 7,000 German soldiers were captured. German counter attacks failed to retake the territory they had lost.
150th Anniversary of the Death of Thomas Francis Meagher
Issued 29th June 2017
Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish Nationalist and a leader of the Young Islanders in the Rebellion of 1848. After being convicted of sedition, he was first sentenced to death but received transportation for life to Van Diemen´s Land now Tasmania in Australia. In 1852, Meagher escaped and made his way to the United States where he settled in New York. At the beginning of the American Civil War, he joined the US Army and rose to the rank of Brigadier General leading the Irish Brigade. After the Civil War ended, Thomas Francis Meagher was appointed Montana´s Territorial Secretary of State and served as Acting Territorial Governor. In 1867, he drowned in the Missouri River after falling from a steamboat at Fort Benton, Montana. It has been suggested that he may have been murdered by Montana political opponents.
Centenary of the Death of Francis Ledwidge
Issued 27th July 2017
Francis Ledwidge born 19th August 1887 in Slane, County Meath was an Irish poet sometimes known as the poet of the blackbirds. He was later known as the First World War poet. Francis Ledwidge befriended the established writer Lord Dunsany who helped with the publication of his works. Despite having sided with the faction of the Irish Volunteers which opposed participation in the war, Ledwidge enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1914. He continued to write poetry on campaign, sending work to Lord Dunsany and to family and friends. Having being posted to several theatres of war, he was killed in action in July 1917 during the early phase of the Battle of Passchendaele. The only work published in book form during Ledwidge´s lifetime was the original volume, “Songs of the Fields” (1915) containing 50 poems. A second volume “Songs of Peace” with 39 poems was published in September 1917. A third and final volume “Last Songs” with 33 poems was later released. The 122 poems from the three volumes were assembled into a collection “The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge” and released in 1919.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
50th Anniversary of the Death of Che Guevara
Issued 5th October 2017
Che Guevara was born on 14th June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina to a middle class family of Spanish-Irish descent. He spent many of his holidays travelling in Latin America and having observed the great poverty of the masses led him to the conclusion that the only solution lay in violent revolution. He became a tactician of guerrilla warfare and a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution of 1956-59 which led to the overthrow of the Batista Government. Che Guevara became one of Castro´s most trusted aides and served as Chief of the Industrial Department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform and President of the National Bank of Cuba in the newly established Marxist Government. Che Guevara grew increasingly disheartened however as Cuba became a client state of the Soviet Union and felt betrayed by the Soviets when they removed their missiles from the island during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He began focusing his attention on fostering revolution elsewhere. In 1965, he fought with the Patrice Lumumba Battalion in a Civil War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After the failure of his efforts in the Congo in 1966, Che Guevara went to Bolivia to create and lead a guerrilla group. On 8th October 1967, the group was almost wiped out by a special detachment of the Bolivian Army. Guevara was captured and executed. Before his body was secretly buried, his hands were cut off and preserved so that his fingerprints could be used to confirm his identity. In 1997, his skeleton was transported to Cuba to be interred in a massive memorial and monument in Santa Clara on the 30th anniversary of his death. Che Guevara would live on as a powerful symbol and an enduring inspiration for revolutionary action.
Centenary of the Birth of Jack Lynch
Issued 10th August 2017
Jack Lynch was born on 15th August 1917 in Shandon on the North side of Cork. He was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979. He was the third leader of Fianna Fáil (from 1966 to 1979) succeeding Seán Lemass. Jack Lynch was also the last party leader to secure in 1977 an overall majority in the Dáil for his party. Before his political career, Jack Lynch had a successful sporting career as a dual player of Gaelic games. He played hurling with his local club Glen Rovers and with the Cork Senior Hurling team from 1936 until 1950. He played Gaelic football with his local team St. Nicholas and the Cork Senior Football team from 1936 to 1946. In hurling, Jack Lynch won five All Ireland titles, three National Leagues and seven Railway Cups. In Gaelic Football, he won one All Ireland title, two Munster titles and one Railway Cup. Jack Lynch died on 20th October 1999 in the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, Dublin. He was honoured with a state funeral. The coffin was then flown from Dublin to Cork where a procession through the streets of the city drew some of the biggest crowds in the city´s history.
W. B. Yeats and the Noh Tradition
9th November 2017
W. B. Yeats wrote a series of plays influenced by Japan´s classical theatre Noh. The stories of Noh were usually adapted from early Japanese court romances, historical sagas and folk tales. They were translated by the American poet Ezra Pound. Yeats saw Noh as the medium he had searching for to create a National Irish Theatre because he believed that poetry was the most powerful and common means of Irish expression. Yeats published fifteen English language Noh plays in 1916 most notably the “Death of Cuchulainn” and “At the Hawk´s Well.”
Souvenir Sheet
2018
Bi-Centenary of the Opening of the GPO
Issued 11th January 2018
The General Post Office in O´Connell Street, Dublin was designed by Armagh born Francis Johnson on a boulevard then known as Sackville Street. It is one of Ireland´s most symbolic buildings and has witnessed two centuries of Irish history. The foundation stone was laid on 12th August 1814 and the finished building opened its doors to the public in 1818 at a construction cost of 50,000. The GPO can trace its origins over 300 years when a premises was opened in High Street in 1688, before relocating to Fishamble Street in 1689. By 1709, the post office was situated in Sycamore Abbey and then at Bardin´s Chocolate House, the site now occupied by the Central Bank. By 1782, it was located in College Green. As the centrepiece of Ireland´s main street, the GPO is an enduring symbol of freedom for the Irish Republic. On Easter Monday, 24th April 1916 armed members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan led by Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly entered the GPO and declared an Irish Republic. It became the headquarters of the Rising and suffered some of the worst destruction in Dublin in 1916. Following the Rising, the shell of the building was found to be structurally sound and a decision was reached in 1924 to rebuild rather than level the site. The reconstructed public office was officially opened in 1929 and the entire construction was completed in 1932. Oliver Sheppard´s statue the “Death of Cuchulainn” was unveiled as an Easter Memorial in 1935.
50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty
Issued 18th January 2018
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968) was one of the greatest collectors of the 20th century and an extraordinary friend to Ireland. As a young mining engineer in New York, Beatty began collecting European and Persian manuscripts as well as Chinese snuff bottles and Japanese netsuke. During a family trip to Egypt in 1914, he developed a fascination for Islamic manuscripts while a journey to Asia in 1917 added Japanese and Chinese painting to his interests. His eye was drawn to rare books, richly illustrated material, fine bindings and calligraphy. In the 1920s, Beatty acquired his outstanding biblical papyri in Egypt. By the time of his death, he had assembled exceptional Islamic, East Asian and biblical manuscripts and also important Persian, Turkish, Armenian and Western European holdings as well as Burmese, Thai and Nepalese manuscripts.
Concerned that his collection would be dispersed if he were to leave it to a large institution, he found another solution. In 1950, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty relocated to Ireland. He had Irish roots, both of his paternal grandparents were born in Ireland. Here he constructed the Chester Beatty Library which housed his collection. He was made a Freeman of Dublin in 1954 and was the first person granted an Honorary Citizenship of Ireland in 1957. Beatty died on 19th January 1968 and was accorded a state funeral by the Irish government, the first private citizen in Irish history. He bequeathed his collection to the Irish Nation which today is housed in the 18th Century Clock Tower Building in the grounds of Dublin Castle. The collection is a resource for scholars as well as a leading cultural attraction for visitors from around the world.
Souvenir Sheet
Centenary of the Death of John Redmond
Issued 1st March 2018
John Redmond, Irish Nationalist, politician, barrister and MP in the House of Commons was born on 1st September 1856 in Dublin, the son of William Archer Redmond a member of the Catholic gentry family of County Wexford. Redmond is best known as the leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918. He was also the leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers. When Home Rule was suspended by the outbreak of the First World War, Redmond called on the National Volunteers to join the Irish regiments of the British Army to ensure the implementation of Home Rule after a war that was expected to be of short duration. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifted in favour of militant Republicanism and full Irish Independence, so that his party lost its dominance in Irish politics. Following an operation for gallstones in London, John Redmond died of heart failure on 6th March 1918. When the British Government decided to impose conscription in Ireland in 1918 it propelled large numbers of Nationalists into the ranks of Sinn Féin. In the General Election of December 1918, the Home Rule Party was wiped out in Southern Ireland winning only 6 seats to 73 for Sinn Féin.
50th Anniversary of Na Píobairí
Issued 24th May 2018
Na Piobairí Uilleann, the society of Uilleann Pipers was founded in 1968. The Uilleann Pipes are descended from bellows-blown pipes that were known in Ireland in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The word uilleann is derived from the Irish word uille (elbow) as the instrument is inflated with a bellows rather than the player´s breath. In 2017, the instrument was recognised as an important and unique cultural heritage symbol by UNESCO.
1,400 Anniversary of the Birth of St. Kevin
Issued 31st May 2018
According to tradition, St. Kevin was born in 498 at the Fort of the White Fountain in Leinster. He was the son of Coemlog and his wife Coemall both of whom belonged to the Royal House of the Kingdom of Leinster. St. Croman of Roscrea baptised him and he was educated by St. Petroc of Cumbria with whom he remained from the age of seven to twelve. He then studied with his uncle Eogain of Ardstraw who had founded the Monastery of Cualann, south of Dublin. After fifteen years here, St. Kevin was ordained a monk and set out to find God in solitude and prayer. He came to Glendalough, County Wicklow and lived by the shore of the upper lake taking for his hermitage an artificial cave on the south side of the lake about 30ft above the water which was originally a Bronze Age Tomb. This became known as St. Kevin´s Bed and can still be seen today. Kevin lived the life of a hermit in his cave for seven years and found his companions in the animals and birds around him. He soon became known as a holy man and others came to Glendalough to seek his advice, to be healed and to follow his way of life. Gradually, small monastic communities were established and over time the Monastic Settlement of Glendalough grew to become one of the great spiritual centres of Christianity in Ireland flourishing for a thousand years after the death of St. Kevin in 618 reputably aged 120 years. He received his canonisation in 1903 and the Feast of St. Kevin is celebrated on 3rd June.
Centenary of the Sinking of RMS Leinster
Issued 10th October 2018
RMS Leinster was an Irish ship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. It was built at Lairds in Birkenhead and during the First World War, the twin propelled ship was armed with one 12-pounder and two signal guns. On her final voyage, the ship´s log states she carried 77 crew and 694 passengers. Those onboard included more than 100 civilians, 22 postal sorters working in the mailroom and almost 500 military personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Also onboard were nurses from Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. On 10th October 1918, RMS Leinster was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB123 under the command of Robert Ramm, while bound for Holyhead. She sank just outside Dublin Bay at a point 4 nautical miles east of the Kish light. The exact number of dead is unknown but researchers from the National Maritime Museum believe it was at least 564 which would make it the largest single loss of life in the Irish Sea. Ten days after the sinking of the RMS Leinster, UB123 detonated a mine while trying to cross the North Sea and return to base in Germany. There were no survivors. In 1991, the anchor of the RMS Leinster was raised by local divers and placed near Carlisle Pier. It was officially dedicated on 28th January 1996. The ship is now under the protection of the National Monument Act which covers all shipwrecks over 100 years old.
Setanta First Day Cover
Armistice Day
Issued 8th November 2018
Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11th November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of the First World War and Germany at Compiegne, France at 5.45am for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front which took effect at 11.00am on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The armistice expired after a period of 36 days and had to be extended several times. A formal peace agreement was reached when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. On 11th November 1918, the Centenary of the Armistice was held globally. In France, more than 60 heads of state and government gathered at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
Popular Democracy
Issued 18th November 2018
This year 2018 marks the centenary when women were first granted the right to vote in the 1918 British General Election held on 4th December. One of the stamps features one of the prominent Irish suffragette campaigners Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington who co-founded the Irish Woman’s Franchise League in 1908. The second stamp issued on the theme of Democracy commemorates the Nationalist Sinn Féin Party landslide victory over the Irish Parliamentary Party in the 1918 Election. The stamp features De Valera who was elected unopposed as outgoing Member of Parliament for East Clare in 1918 while in prison in Lincoln Gaol in England.
2019
Centenary of the First Dáil
Issued 17th January 2019
On 21st January 1919, the Dáil met for the first time in the Mansion House on Dawson Street, Dublin The 27 members present were all from Sinn Féin who had been elected in the 1918 General Election which had taken place in December. The party decided not to take their seats in Westminster and form their own parliament instead. The proceedings were conducted in Irish beginning with a prayer delivered by Father Michael O´Flanagan. The main business was conducted swiftly; the appointment of a speaker Cathal Brugha, the appointment of clerks and the calling of the roll. Twenty-nine members were recorded as present but the attendance of Michael Collins and Harry Boland was incorrectly called to conceal their mission to rescue De Valera from jail. A large number were listed as imprisoned. They had been arrested the previous year in the so-called “German Plot” which alleged that a number of Republicans had been engaged in treasonable communication with Germany. It included Countess Markievicz, Éamon De Valera, Arthur Griffith and William Cosgrave. Then the main resolutions were formulated; Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Address to the Free Nations of the World and the Democratic Programme. The first was read in Irish alone, the other three in Irish, English and French. The Declaration of Independence stated; “We ordain the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which people will give its allegiance. We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate and we demand the evacuation of our country by the English garrison” The political and military struggle against British rule was now unified and the scene was set for the War of Independence.
Setanta First Day Cover
Great Irish Songs
Issued 9th May 2019
The stamps on this First Day Cover feature four internationally recognised songs performed by renowned Irish artists and celebrate Irish identity and culture. The songs are; “With or without You” which was composed and performed by U2. It is included on their multi-platinum album “The Joshua Tree” which was released in March 1987; “Danny Boy” is drawn from an old Irish melody “Londonderry Air” and was set to the lyrics of “Danny Boy” by Frederik Weatherly in 1913; “Dreams” was written and composed by Dolores O´Riordan and Neil Hogan and performed by the Cranberries. First released in 1992, their debut single became a worldwide hit in 1994; “On Raglan Road” was inspired by an old Irish air “The Dawning of the Day.” Patrick Kavanagh composed this poem of unrequited love for Hilda Moriarty. He gifted “On Raglan Road” to the legendary ballad singer Luke Kelly of the Dubliners.
Space Exploration
Issued 4th July 2019
The four stamps feature American astronauts with Irish ancestry. Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the moon and Michael Collins who accompanied him on the 1969 Lunar expedition and Eileen Collins and Catherine (Cady) Coleman who participated in various shuttle missions. Neil Armstrong has ancestral roots in County Fermanagh. In 1969 as part of the Apollo 11 crew, he became the first man to walk on the moon. He was also a naval engineer, test pilot and university professor. The Irish roots of Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins who flew around the moon while his crewmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first crewed landing on the surface can be traced to the town of Dunmanway, County Cork from his grandfather Jeremiah Collins who emigrated in the 1860s. He was also a test pilot and a Major General in the US Air Force Reserve. Eileen Collins is a former flight instructor and test pilot. She was the first woman to pilot the space shuttle and the first to command a space shuttle mission. Her father James Edward Collins ancestors came to America from County Cork in the mid 1800s settling in Pennsylvania and Elmira, New York. Catherine Coleman a former United States Air Force Colonel is a veteran of two space shuttle missions and departed the International Space Station on 23rd May 2011 as a member of Expedition 27 after logging 159 days in space. There is a spelling mistake on the stamps featuring Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. The mistake occurs in the last word of the Irish language inscription which is below the English text. The Irish word for moon “gealach” is misspelled gaelach which means Irish.
50 Years of Thin Lizzy
Issued 3rd October 2019
Thin Lizzy the Irish rock band was formed in 1969 in Dublin. Phil Lynott led the group throughout their fourteen year recording career of twelve studio albums writing or co-writing almost all of the band´s material. The singles “Whiskey in the Jar” (1972), “The Boys are Back in Town” (1976) and “Waiting for an Alibi” (1979) were international hits and several Thin Lizzy albums reached the top ten in the UK. Thin Lizzy played their final UK concert before their break-up at the Reading Festival on 28th August 1983. Their last concert came in Nuremberg on 4th September 1983 at the Monsters of Rock Festival after which the band members went their separate ways. Phil Lynott lead singer and bassist died on 4th January 1986.
Souvenir Sheet
2020
War of Independence
Issued 20th February 2020
The stamp featured on this First Day Cover is from the painting “Men of the South” by Seán Keating. This iconic painting has a fascinating history. In the summer of 1921, during the ceasefire that accompanied the Anglo-Irish negotiations in London a band of armed IRA men knocked on the door of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. The men from the 2nd North Cork Brigade of the IRA were there to sit for Keating for a painting he would give the title, “Men of the South.” The members of the Brigade were; Jim Riordan, Denis O´Mullane, Jim Cashman, John Jones, Roger Kiely and Dan Browne. Their commander Seán Moylan asked to be omitted from the painting as fearing the truce was temporary he did not want to give the British any opportunity to identify him. Seán Moylan´s Brigade had a fearsome reputation and were probably the most effective fighting unit in the IRA. The painting now hangs in Cork´s Crawford Art Gallery. A second unfinished version of Keating´s painting, this time with commander Seán Moylan present hangs in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Centenary of the Birth of Liam Cosgrave
Issued 9th April 2020
Liam Cosgrave was born on 13th April 1920 in Templeogue, Dublin. His father William Cosgrave was President of the Executive Council and Head of the Irish Government during the first ten years of its existence. Liam Cosgrave studied law at King´s Inns and was called to the Irish Bar in 1943. In that same year, he entered Dáil Eireann and retained his seat until his retirement from politics in 1981. He succeeded James Dillon as party leader of Fine Gael in 1965. Eight years later, as leader of the Coalition Government in which Fine Gael combined forces with the Labour Party, he became Taoiseach. Liam Cosgrave and British Prime Minister Edward Heath were main participants in the intergovernmental conference in Sunningdale in December 1973 that gave birth to Northern Ireland´s first though short lived power sharing executive 1973-1974. In the General Election of 1977, the National Coalition was heavily defeated. In the immediate aftermath, Liam Cosgrave resigned as party leader. He was succeeded by Garrett Fitzgerald. In 1981, he retired as Dáil Deputy for Dun Laoghaire. Liam Cosgrave died on 4th October 2017.
25th Anniversary of Father Ted
Issued 27th August 2020
The comedy series Father Ted was produced for Channel 4. It was broadcast from 21st April 1995 until 1st May 1998 and was set on the remote fictional Craggy Island off the West Coast of Ireland. The show followed the lives of father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan) and his fellow priests, Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O´Hanlon) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) who are exiled on the island together in the parochial house with the fourth main character, housekeeper Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn). The show ran for a total of 25 episodes. Having achieved a cult following, since 2007 “Ted Fest” a Father Ted fan convention has been held annually.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
Souvenir Sheet
War of Independence
Issued 24th September 2020
The First Day Cover is an illustration of the Burning of Cork. This took place on the night of 11th-12th December 1920 when Auxiliaries, Black and Tans and British soldiers looted and burned numerous buildings in the centre of Cork in retaliation for an IRA ambush in the city which wounded twelve Auxiliaries, one fatally. More than 40 business premises, 500 residential properties, the City Hall and Carnegie Library were destroyed by fire. The economic damage was estimated at over three million while 2,000 were left jobless and may more became homeless. The two stamps depict the role and impact of political confrontation and civil disobedience during the War of Independence. The first stamp is from a photograph taken in Westport Town Hall in the summer of 1920 of an IRA court in session. The Dáil courts were founded to oversee a system of Irish law from 1920-1924. It features Conor Maguire who later became Chief Justice of Ireland along with Edward Moore on his left and John O´Boyle on his right. The second stamp reproduces a headline in the Freeman´s Journal of 21st May 1920, “Dockers Down Tools” and refers to the Munitions Strike whereby dockers refused to unload British munitions from a vessel in Dublin. The strike action which continued until December 1920 quickly spread across Ireland with rail workers also refusing to handle munitions.
U2 A Celebration 1976-2020:
Issued 15th October 2020
Entitled U2 A Celebration 1976-2020, the four stamp set represents distinct eras in U2´s musical journey through four of the most memorable albums; “The Joshua Tree” (1987), “Achtung Baby” (1991), “All That You Can´t Leave Behind” (2000) and “Songs of Experience” (2017). Each stamp has a different shape to capture the evolution of the band over four decades. The First Day Cover has an early photo taken by Hot Press photographer Colin Henry of Bono, the Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton performing at the Dublin Dandelion Market and a miniature sheet and a souvenir sheet which features a special edition U2 360 Tour panorama stamp set within a wider image of the stage in London´s Wembley Stadium.
Miniature Sheet and Souvenir Sheet
Christmas 2020
Issued 5th November 2020
The six Christmas stamps on the First Day Cover highlight the importance of keeping communities connected and show some new traditions that have become part of living with Covid-19. These include home baking with the family, online calls with family and friends and a postman checking in with an older customer as well as an angel and a traditional nativity scene.
2021
100th Anniversary of the Birth of Patrick Scott
Issued 21st January 2021
Patrick Scott the acclaimed Irish artist was born in 1921 in Kilbrittain, County Cork. He trained as an architect and went on to work for the architect Michael Scott and as a graphic designer with Signa Design Consultancy. He painted in his spare time. In 1960, Scott represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, an international cultural exhibition and one of the most important contemporary visual art exhibitions. The same year, he won a national prize at the Guggenheim International Award and turned to painting full time. Patrick Scott is recognised as one of the first exponents of pure abstraction in Irish art. He was elected a Saoi of Aosdána in 2007. The title Saoi (wise one) is a national honour that members of Aosdána, a state supported association of Irish creative artists bestow on a fellow member for singular and sustained distinction in the arts. The President of Ireland confers the symbol of the office of Saoi, the Gold Torc. Retrospectives of Scott´s work were held at the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1982) and Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane (2002) and a seminal 2014 exhibition “Patrick Scott: Image Space Light” which brought together the most comprehensive representation of his career. Patrick Scott died on 14th February 2014.
Souvenir Sheet
Stamp for Ireland
Issued 18th February 2021
The stamp featured on this First Day Cover focuses on the Gaelic word “Fáilte” which translates as Welcome in English together with numbers that relate to the famous saying “Cead Mile Fáilte”. The latter translates as one hundred thousand welcomes, an Irish greeting that extends a warm welcome to tourists, business people and other international travellers.
Bicentenary of the Birth of Lady Jane Wilde
Issued 4th March 2021
Before her marriage to William Wilde, she was Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee. She was born on 27th December 1821 to John Elgee, a solicitor and Sarah Kingsbury in Wexford. An Irish poet and a supporter of the Irish Nationalist movement, she wrote under the penname Speranza chiefly for the Nation Newspaper. Lady Jane Wilde is remembered as the fiery writer of verse that ignited the Young Ireland movement for Independence in the 1840s. She challenged the treatment of the tenant farmers and the hunger and misery of the population that forced so many to emigrate. She had a particular interest in Irish folktales which she helped to gather with her husband Sir William Wilde. He also catalogued Irish antiquities and gathered legends and superstitions that have been repeated from generation to generation. In later life, Lady Jane Wilde wrote the book, “Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland” which preserved Ireland´s cultural past. She was the mother of William Wilde an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era and Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright and author of the novel “The Picture of Dorian Grey.” When her husband died in 1876, the family discovered he was virtually bankrupt. Lady Jane Wilde joined her sons in London and lived with William the eldest son in poverty supplementing her income by writing for magazines. She died on 3rd February 1896 having contracted bronchitis and was interred in common ground without a headstone. In 1996, a plaque was placed on her husband´s grave in Dublin which stated, “Speranza of the Nation, Writer Translator, Poet and Nationalist, Author of works on Irish Folklore, early advocate of equality for women and founder of a leading Literary Salon.” In 1999, a monument to her in the form of a Celtic Cross was erected at Kensal Green Cemetery by the Oscar Wilde Society.
Irish Antarctic Explorers
Issued 15th April 2021
This issue of four stamps honour the eight Irishmen who played significant roles in the Antarctic expeditions of the 1800s and 1900s. County Kildare born Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean from Annascaul, County Kerry and five County Cork men; Edward Bransfield, Patrick Keohane, Robert Forde and brothers Mortimer and Tim McCarthy and Francis Crozier from County Down.
Ernest Shackleton born 15th February 1874 lead the expedition Endeavour 1914-1916 to reach the South Pole. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1901 and was chosen to go on an Antarctic expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott on the ship Discovery. During this expedition, they came closer to reaching the South Pole than anyone had come before. In 1908, Shackleton returned to the Antarctic as the leader of his own expedition on a ship called Nimrod. His team came within 97 miles of reaching the North Pole. He was knighted on his return. In 1914, Shackleton made his third trip to the Antarctic leading an expedition aboard the ship Endurance. Early in 1915, Endurance became trapped in ice and his crew abandoned the ship to live on the floating ice. In April 1916, the crew set off on three small boats eventually reaching Elephant Island. Shackleton, Tom Crean and four others went to find help across the ocean to South Georgia. In August 1916, the remaining members of Endurance were rescued. His fourth expedition aimed to navigate the Antarctic Ocean aboard the Quest but on 5th January 1922, he died of a heart attack
Tom Crean born on 25th February 1877 near Annascaul, County Kerry served on three great Antarctic expeditions in the 20th century. In June 1910 as a member of Scott´s team, he embarked on the Terra Nova to finally reach the South Pole. Scott had always intended there to be a 4-man team to complete the final stage of the journey and when they were 150 miles from the pole, he ordered Crean, Evans and Lashly to turn back. On their return journey, Evans was struck down with scurvy and instructed the other two men to leave him behind. They refused and Crean went for help leaving Lashly to care for Evans in a tent. After eighteen hours, he arrived at Hut Point and raised the alarm resulting in Evans surviving. Crean was also part of the search party who found Scott and his team dead and buried them. Tom Crean was presented with a Polar Medal as well as the Albert Medal for his bravery in saving Evans. Less than one year after the Terra Nova expedition, Crean embarked with Shackleton on the Endeavour. After leaving the ship stuck in ice, he was part of the party that sailed to South Georgia and crossed the island to seek help. The crew of the Endurance were all returned safely. Tom Crean returned to Annascaul and opened a pub called the South Pole. He died on 27th July 1938 with suspected appendicitis.
In 1819, Edward Bransfield was tasked with exploring reports of unchartered land. His twelve month expedition uncovered King George Island, the Bransfield Strait and the Trinity Peninsula the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland.
Patrick Keohane served with Tom Crean on Scott´s fatal Terra Nova expedition in 1910. For the expeditions return, different support parties needed to return to base. Patrick Keohane was among the first group to return a decision he was disappointed with but it saved his life.
Robert Forde also took part in the Terra Nova expedition. He and his companions had the responsibility of examining the area around Ross Island and the Polar Plateau. This is the reason behind the glacier being called Mount Forde in the Victoria Land. Temperatures dropped as low as -62C. Forde´s hands were severely frostbitten and he was forced to return to the ship by Captain Scott. His hands were saved and he was brought to New Zealand in April 1912. During the First World War, Robert Forde served in the Royal Navy. He survived the war and remained in the Royal Navy until 1920 when he returned to live in Cobh, County Cork. He died here on 13th March 1959.
Brothers Mortimer and Tim McCarthy had contrasting fates. Mortimer served on three Antarctic expeditions including the Terra Nova expedition. He served on ships into his 80s and became one of the oldest people to visit the Antarctic in 1963 as one of the three surviving members of Scott´s 1910 voyage. Tim McCarthy served on Ernest Shackleton´s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition and took part in rescue efforts to save the crew with Tom Crean after the journey ended in jeopardy. He set out as part of Shackleton´s team to find help for the crew. He later died in service during the First World War after a German submarine sank his navy vessel.
Francis Crozier from County Down set out in 1839 as commander of HMS Terror on the Ross expedition. Crozier, his ship and all the crew were lost along with Sir John Franklin on their ill-fated search for the North West Passage in the Arctic just a few years later.
Setanta First Day Covers
Centenary of the Truce
Issued 8th July 2021
The War of Independence in Ireland ended with a truce on 11th July 1921. The conflict had reached a stalemate. Talks that had looked promising the previous year had petered out in December when Lloyd George the British Prime Minster insisted the IRA first surrender their arms. Fresh talks resumed in the Spring and resulted in a Truce. The British government was facing severe criticism at home and abroad for the actions of British forces in Ireland. On 6th June 1921, the British made their first conciliatory gesture calling off the policy of house burnings and reprisals. On the other side, Michael Collins felt the IRA could not continue indefinitely and had been hard pressed by the deployment of more regular British soldiers to Ireland and by the lack of arms and ammunition. On 24th June 1921, the British Coalition government´s cabinet decided to propose talks with the leader of Sinn Féin. Lloyd George wrote to De Valera suggesting a conference and the Irish responded by agreeing to talks. A Truce that was intended to end the fighting and lay the ground for detailed negotiating was signed on 9th July 1921 and came into effect two days later on 11th July 1921.
The first stamp shows an excerpt from a letter in the Belfast Newsletter of 9th July 1921 from the President of Dáil Éireann Eamonn de Valera to Lloyd George. The second stamp features an 11th July 1921 headline from the Irish Bulletin which was the official gazette of the government of the Irish Republic. The First Day Cover shows a photograph of Arthur Griffith and Eamonn de Valera leaving the Mansion House following lengthy Truce negotiations.
Irish Singer Songwriters at Glastonbury
Issued 15th July 2021
The Glastonbury Festival is a five-day event of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists headline alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage. Glastonbury is attended by over 200,000 people. Most of the festival staff are unpaid volunteers helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations. The four stamps on the First Day Cover feature photographs of four leading Irish artists who have appeared at the Glastonbury Festival; Christy Moore, Sinéad O´Connor, Lisa Hannigan and Hozier (Andrew Hozier Byrne).
150th Anniversary of the Irish Gaeity Theatre
Issued 7th October 2021
The Gaeity Theatre on South King Street is Dublin´s longest established theatre in continuous production. In April 1871, the brothers John and Michael Gunn obtained a 21-year licence to establish a well-regulated theatre. The brothers had a family music business on Grafton Street. They engaged the architect C. J. Phipps and construction was completed in just 28 weeks at a cost of 26,000. The audience capacity was 2,000 spread over four floors. The theatre was different from others in Ireland as it would receive touring companies and would not have its own company of actors. It opened on 27th November 1871, with Goldsmith´s comedy “She stoops to Conquer” followed by “La Belle Sauvage.” After twelve years of success, the architect Frank Matcham was engaged to create the roomy and comfortable parterre and dress-circle bars which he then decorated. Patrick Wall and Louis Elliman bought the theatre in 1936 and ran it for several decades. They instituted the home-produced Christmas pantomimes with the comedian Jimmy O´Dea to present the panto. He was later joined by Maureen Potter who quickly established herself as Ireland´s Queen of Comedy. The Louis Elliman Group sold the theatre in 1965 to the Eamonn Andrews Group. It was during their era that the Gaeity´s audience swelled to 400 million for the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, the first to be held in Ireland and RTE´S earliest colour transmission of an indoor event. The Gaeity has seen many famous people of the musical and dramatic stage perform; Pavlova, Markova, Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Henry Irving, Jack Benny, Peter O´Toole and Ray McAnally to name but a few. The present owners, Denis and Caroline Desmond invested over 2.15 million in the biggest restoration programme the Gaeity Theatre had seen in over fifty years and included the installation of an air-conditioning system and new seating. On 4th February 2007, the theatre closed for five months to undertake the biggest refurbishment scheme the theatre had seen in its history at a cost of 9.5 million. The Irish government awarded a grant of 7.5 million. The stage was rebuilt, dressing rooms upgraded, roof works and refurbishment of front of house and bar areas ensuring the future of this Irish institution.
Centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Issued 2nd December 2021
The Treaty was signed in London on 6th December 1921 by a delegation mandated by Dáil Éireann and representatives of the British government and opened the way for the establishment of the Irish Free State. It took effect exactly a year later on 6th December 1922. Negotiations had begun on 11th October 1921 in an attempt to answer what was known as “the Irish Question” once and for all. The resulting Treaty gave 26 counties of Ireland a parliament and jurisdiction over most domestic affairs, a significant fiscal autonomy and a military force although the British was to retain temporary control of several military ports. The Treaty granted the parliament of Northern Ireland the option of joining the Free State after a period of one month or remaining a devolved part of the United Kingdom. It chose the latter which under the terms of the Treaty triggered the formation of the Boundary Commission.
The first stamp features the signatories of the Irish Treaty delegates; Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Robert Barton, Eamonn Duggan and George Gavan Duffy and the British representatives; Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill. The second stamp is a reproduction of Arthur Griffith´s message after the Treaty signing. The First Day Cover shows a photograph of the Irish delegation in London.
2022
100 Years of History
Issued 13th January 2022
The three anniversaries commemorated on the stamps are the handover of Dublin Castle by the British, the formation of the Civic Guard and the formation of the Irish Army. In August 1922, the moment came for the departure of the RIC from Dublin Castle. On 17th August 1922, a detachment of 380 Civic Guards led by the first Commissioner, Michael Staines marched through the Palace Street Gate to take possession of their new home. The crowds who had gathered in Dame Street, outside the Castle hoping to see a takeover were to be disappointed. The final RIC contingent of men had left that morning at 8.00am. A company of British troops from Richmond Barracks were instead sent to temporarily guard the Castle pending the arrival of its new occupiers. Once inside the historic complex, the Civic Guards made for the Ship Street Barracks formerly the base for the British military in the Castle but vacant for a number of months. Michael Staines a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising took up office there as the first Commissioner of the Civic Guard and began his work of policing the new state.
Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 thoughts turned to the creation of a police force for the new Irish State. Michael Collins agreed with Britain´s last Chief Secretary for Ireland, Hamar Greenwood that a provisional date of 20th February 1922 should be set for the disbandment of the RIC. A committee was set up by Collins to advise and guide on the formation of the new Irish Police Force. It retained a fair proportion of RIC men and the structure of the new Civic Guard was very similar to the RIC. Collins insisted on many of the senior posts being held by ex-RIC men. They had the policing experience but many it was said supplied intelligence to Collins during the War of Independence and were being remembered for their loyalty. This created a lot of tension among the new recruits, drawn mostly from the ranks of the IRA who resented ex-RIC being shown preferment. This issue led to a mutiny in May 1922 at the Civic Guard Training Centre in Kildare Town. One key difference between the new Civic Guard and the RIC was that it was to be unarmed. The need to get the new police force properly up and running was urgent. Crime had soared in the country.
The Irish Defence Forces originated as the Irish Volunteers which was founded in 1913. Their official title in the Irish Language is “Óglaigh na hÉireann,” Irish Volunteers. The Defence Forces buttons on their uniforms still show the letters IV for Irish Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers led by Pádraig Pearse took part in the 1916 Easter Rising. The Anglo-Irish Treaty caused deep divisions within Nationalist Ireland and ended in Civil War. On 28th June 1922, the National Army as the pro-Treaty IRA now became known bombarded the Four Courts in Dublin which was occupied by the anti-Treaty forces leadership. After a period of conventional warfare, the anti-Treaty side reverted to a guerrilla campaign. This was accompanied by assassinations and the destruction of buildings, bridges and other installations. The Provisional Government adopted special powers and executed 77 prisoners before the opponents of the Treaty called a ceasefire on 24th May 1923. In the autumn of 1923, it was decided to reduce the strength of the army by 30,000 personnel. The new state set about providing a legal status for its armed forces under the Defence Forces Act of 1923. The Executive Council formally established Óglaigh na hÉireann on 1st October 1924. A Military Mission was sent to the USA in 1926 to study organisation and training methods. As a result, training was placed on a proper footing with the establishment of a Military College, Corps and Service Schools.
One First Day Cover features all three stamps, and the other three have additional information to give greater context to each individual event. A collector´s Souvenir folder was also issued containing a limited edition Souvenir Sheet celebrating 100 years of the postage stamp making a direct connection between the post office´s role in the formation of the Irish State.
Souvenir Sheet
Centenary of James Joyce´s Ulysses
Issued 27th January 2022
Ulysses a novel by Irish writer James Joyce was first published in book form on 2nd February 1922 by Sylvia Beach in Paris. It is generally regarded as a masterpiece and has been the subject of numerous volumes of commentary and analysis. The novel is constructed as a modern parallel to Homer´s “Odyssey.” Ulysses takes place in and immediately around Dublin on a single day, 16th June 1904. The three central characters Stephen Dedalus, the hero of Joyce´s earlier work “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Leopold Bloom a Jewish advertising canvasser and his wife Molly.
Irish Women in Sport
Issued 3rd March 2022
The six stamps on the First Day Cover celebrate Irish women sporting heroes. The athletes honoured are; Rachael Blackmore, the first female top jockey at Cheltenham and the first female Aintree Grand National winner, Kellie Harrington and Katie Taylor both of whom won Olympic boxing gold medals. Katie Taylor also a world professional boxing titleholder, Ireland´s Women´s Hockey Team, silver medallists at the 2018 World Cup and who also qualified for the finals in 2022; Ellen Keane who won a gold medal in the Paralympics and Sonia O´Sullivan, Ireland´s most successful track and field female athlete, winning sixteen major World, European and Olympic medals.
Irish Oscar Winners
Issued 24th March 2022
This First Day Cover with its four stamps celebrate Ireland´s success at the Oscars. The photographs capture the moment each of the winners picked up their Oscar at the awards ceremony; Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker were winners of Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for “My Left Foot” in 1990, Neil Jordan won Best Screenplay for “The Crying Game” in 1993; Martin McDonagh won Best Live Action Short Film for “Six Shooter” in 2006 and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won for Best Original Song in “Once” in 2008.
100 Years of Art on a Stamp
Issued 31st March 2022
This 10th Definitive Stamp Series, “Art on a Stamp” marks the last 100 years of commemorative stamp issues. The series takes a look back over the state´s century of existence and highlights artwork from Irish artists, designers and creators on postage stamps reflecting Ireland´s rich heritage. The first set of eight stamps on these 2 First Day Covers feature; Maps of Ireland by James Ingram (1922), Louis le Brocquy´s original stamp design to mark Ireland´s entry into the European Union (1973), Patrick Scott´s original stamp design to mark the World Ploughing Championships (1973), Seabirds and Landmarks by Nano Reid (2005), Ireland Series: Landscapes by Paul Henry (2008), Ireland Fashion Designers, Orla Kiely and Philip Treacy (2010), Contemporary Art II, “The Fall” by Amanda Coogan (2013) and Fin DAC and Maser with Urban Street Art (2017).
Irish Breakfasts
Issued 28th April 2022
The Irish breakfast was traditionally cooked to prepare one for a full day´s work on the farm on a cold winter´s morning. It comprised the best local and homemade farm produce all cooked in butter in a frying pan; sausages, rashers, black and white pudding, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and cold cooked potato. It was served with a helping of homemade Irish soda bread, butter and jam at the side and washed down with a strong cup of tea.
Coláistí Samhraidh
Issued 26th May 2022
When the Irish Free State was established in 1922, the Irish language was designated a core subject within the primary school curriculum. This meant that all national school teachers, along with school inspectors and lecturers in the teacher training colleges were obliged to learn the Irish language so as to be able to teach the language to the almost half a million children who attended national school. In order to gain a knowledge of the Irish language, the Department of Education sent the teachers to Irish Language Summer Colleges in Irish speaking areas. These colleges had multiplied in number throughout Ireland since the first such college was established in 1904 at the height of the Irish language revivalist movement. The colleges were open to all age groups from young children to older adults and catered for all levels of language learning. In the 1920s, the Irish Language Summer Colleges were independently run but were endorsed by the new government and were closely aligned with the Irish language school curriculum. The role of the colleges has not changed significantly in 100 years. The Irish state continues to endorse and partially fund independently run Irish colleges. Students who are training to become primary school teachers spend four weeks attending an Irish college as part of their undergraduate or postgraduate degree. However the vast majority of those attending Irish colleges nowadays are secondary school students. Approximately 25,000 Irish teenagers are in attendance in Irish colleges every summer paid for by their parents in order to improve their standard of Irish as they progress through secondary school and ahead of the state examinations of which the Irish language is a compulsory component.
Bloomsday Festival 2022-Centenary of Ulysses
Issued 16th June 2022
The 2022 Bloomsday Festival hosting one hundred different events spread over a week was held from 12th to 18th June in Dublin to celebrate 100 years of Ulysses. The focus of the festival celebrated the city, its theatres, arts, parks, beaches, music, waterways, streets, squares, pubs and people. Highlights included a visit to the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove, the new Paddy Dignam Tour and Joyce Exhibition at Glasnevin Cemetery, a visit to Davy Byrnes pub where a stage was set up for two days of street performances, the Corn Exchange´s Dubliners in Smock Alley, an enchanting evening of Chamber Music at the Hugh Lane Gallery and Ulysses 100 a reading by Barry McGowan reading the entire Ulysses on the Abbey Theatre´s Peacock State and on Bloomsday itself, an afternoon of Ulysses readings and songs in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar as comedians, actors and musicians guide you through the novel.
Centenary of the Irish Civil War 1922-1923
Issued 23rd June 2022
Disagreements over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to Civil War breaking out in Ireland on 28th June 1922. The bitter conflict that followed pitted former comrades and family members against each other until the fighting ended on 28th May 1923. One of the most infamous chapters of the Civil War was the destruction of the Public Records Office destroyed during the shelling of the Four Courts. The Civil War though short was bloody. It cost the lives of many public figures, including Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith and Liam Lynch. Both sides carried out brutal acts; the anti-Treaty forces killed a TD and several other pro-Treaty politicians and burned many houses of senators and Free State supporters while the government executed anti-Treaty prisoners officially and unofficially. The pro-Treaty forces suffered between 800 and 1,000 fatalities and it has been suggested that the anti-Treaty death toll was higher at 2,000. The economic cost of the war was also high. The economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence. The material damage caused by the war to property has been estimated to be in the region of 50 million in 1922, equivalent to about 2.1 billion today.
The stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War on 28th June 1922 consists of a painting of the burning of the Four Courts in Dublin by artist Mick O´Dea entitled “Commencement of Hostilities.”
Centenary of the Death of Michael Collins
Issued 18th August 2022
Michael Collins death on 12th August 1922 was the highest profile casualty of the Irish Civil War which arose over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. On 20th August 1922, Collins left Dublin with an escort convoy for his native Cork. Two days later, they travelled to West Cork passing through the tiny crossroads village of Béal na Bláth where they were spotted by a scout with the local anti-Treaty forces. With many of the roads in the area blocked, they returned via the same route, where they were ambushed. Collins was the only fatality in the ambush. As a member of the five strong Irish Delegation who signed the Treaty, he was quoted as saying, “I may have signed my death warrant.” His premonition came to pass less than nine months later when he died in the ambush near Béal na Bláth.
The stamp features a photograph by C & L Walsh of Michael Collins in military uniform. The First Day Cover carries a specially designed cancellation mark featuring Collins name in similar typeface to that on the Béal na Bláth monument and includes the designation Corcaigh.
Europa Stories and Myths
Issued 8th September 2022
The two stamps on this First Day Cover created as part of the Europa Stamp Competition were inspired by the legend of “Balor of the Evil Eye” and is based on County Donegal´s Poisoned Glen. Balor was a legendary figure in the Formorian supernatural race in Irish mythology. According to the Irish folklore tales, Balor caused great pain and anguish to the Tuatha Dé Dannan, the other supernatural race in Irish folklore. The legend centres on Balor having an eye that when unleashed could cause instant death or poisoning. Balor´s Poisoned Eye is the main focus of one stamp. The second stamp relates to the legend that claimed Balor had only to look on the landscape to cause damage such as in the Poisoned Glen in County Donegal.
Centenary of the Establishment of Saorstat Éireann
Issued 13th October 2022
Saorstat Éireann was established on 6th December 1922 under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty which ended the War of Independence. The Irish Free State became a self-governing dominium of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The 6th of December was also a special day for Irish stamps, 100 years ago the first Irish stamp, the well-known 2d green Map of Ireland Stamp was issued by the newly formed Independent Irish Post Office. The stamp a painting by Brian Gallagher features various symbolic elements; corncrakes emerging from a meadow, suggesting freedom, an old cracked tower house with frayed tricolour signifying the long difficult road to some form of Irish Independence and the already evident divisions caused by Civil War, Nationalism and Unionism.
Centenary of the Death of Erskine Childers
Issued 17th November 2022
Although he acted as Secretary to the Irish Delegation involved in the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, Erskine Childers was a prominent campaigner against the Treaty during the Civil War. During the First World War, he was a British Intelligence Officer but later joined the Irish Nationalist movement. His yacht the Asgard was used to smuggle a cargo of rifles and ammunition from Germany to the Irish Volunteers in Howth, County Dublin in June 1914. In 1921, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin deputy for County Wicklow and became the Dáil´s Minster of Propaganda. The death of Childers followed his arrest in County Wicklow. He was charged with possessing a pistol and sentenced to death by firing squad under emergency legislation passed by Dáil Éireann which allowed for the execution of those captured bearing arms against the state during the Civil War. Erskine Childers was the author of “the Riddle of the Sands” a popular spy story involving an imaginary German raid on England.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
2023
50th Anniversary of Ireland joining the European Communities
Issued 5th January 1923
Ireland´s membership of the European Economic Community EEC which was to evolve into the European Union began in 1972 when 83% of Irish people voted Yes to joining the European Communities in a referendum held on 10th May 1972 and officially began on 1st January 1973. Back then, Ireland was regarded by most of the global community as an almost insignificant island still struggling to find its place in the world more than five decades after gaining Independence from Britain. In the years before becoming a member state, political leaders argued that Ireland´s future lay within Europe. However, the six founding countries expressed doubts about Ireland´s economic capacity and neutrality. Ireland was refused entry in 1963 by French President General Charles de Gaulle. A second application in 1967 was also blocked by de Gaulle but in 1969, his successor George Pompidou promised not to stand in the way of Irish and British membership. Fresh negotiations began on 22nd January 1972 leading to their entry in 1973. Being part of the European Union has helped Ireland´s transition into a strong, stable and more independent nation. In 1972, the Irish economy was largely agriculturally based and highly reliant on exports to the United Kingdom. European Union membership granted farmers access to the more profitable Single Market and helped Ireland develop a more diverse economy with industries like pharmaceuticals, computer software and hardware and financial services. European legislation in equality in the workforce has ensured that Irish men and women are entitled to equal pay for doing the same job. As European citizens, Irish people can work or study freely in other member states.
Book of Kells
Issued 23rd February 2023
One of the greatest treasures of its kind, the Book of Kells is an illuminated religious manuscript from the medieval period. Written in Latin, it contains the four Gospels of the New Testament and was crafted by Irish monks in the Columban Monastery on the Island of Iona which is located in the Inner Hebrides on the western coast of Scotland in circa 800. From 795 onwards, Vikings began to strike Iona and in the year 806 a single Viking raid killed 68 monks. At some period in the decades after, the survivors decided to leave the Island and relocated to Ireland where they settled at the Abbey of Kells in County Meath. The Book of Kells travelled with them and was probably finished there. It remained in Kells for the next eight centuries. In the 1650s during the invasion of Oliver Cromwell, it was sent to Dublin for safekeeping. Bishop Henry Jones who graduated from Trinity College and was now Vice-Chancellor of the college donated it to Trinity´s Library in 1661. It is still on display there today. The Book of Kells is written on vellum pages, historically a type of material made from prepared animal skin usually calfskin. It was done by three anonymous scribes who are identified in the present day only as Hand A, Hand B and Hand C. The book measures 33cm x 25cm and each page is decorated in some way whether with a large and lavish illustration or though adornment of the text itself. The painted images are intricate with tiny details or embellishments from Celtic knots to peacocks and lions in a variety of bright pigments. These accompany the Latin text, the complete gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and part of John and indexes, summaries and commentary. It is incredibly complete for a text that is so old. While there are missing pages, this could be due to a theft of the book as early as the 11th century which is recorded in the Annals of Ulster. The book was stolen from the Abbey at Kells and only recovered two months later, missing its bejewelled and golden binding.
Women in Public Life
2nd March 2023
The four stamps on this First Day Cover celebrate women who have made an indelible mark on Irish Public Life over the past 140 years; Jennie Wyse Power, Susan Denham, Mary Robinson and Thekla Beere;
Jennie O´Toole (who later became Jennie Wyse Power) was born on 1st May 1858 in Baltinglass, County Wicklow. Her father Edward O´Toole had a leather provisions and meal business in the town. In 1860, the family sold the business and relocated to Cuffe Street in Dublin where her father set up in business. The family were Nationalists and made their home available as a safe haven to the Fenians. In October 1881, Jennie joined the Ladies Land League. Its main aim was to raise funds to provide relief to evicted tenants. She quickly became an active member of the executive council. The women were harassed by the authorities who eventually banned the organisation. However, the women carried on the activities of the Land League after its leaders including Charles Stuart Parnell were imprisoned. The women also published the banned Nationalist newspaper “United Ireland.” The organisation was disbanded after 18 months following a disagreement between Anna Parnell and her brother Charles. One of Jennie´s duties between 1881/1883 included acting as librarian to imprisoned Land Leaguers held in Irish jails. It was about this time, she met John Wyse Power and they married in July 1883. He was also a Nationalist and had served time in Naas Jail, County Kildare and became editor of the “Leinster Leader.” John was also one of the seven men who founded the GAA in 1884 in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary. In 1890, Jennie joined Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic Revival Movement) and became a member of its executive. She helped in setting up the Irish College in Ring, County Waterford. Jeannie and her husband supported the Gaelic League which was founded in 1893. They both learned Irish and their children participated in the various cultural activities of the organisation. In 1899, the family relocated to Henry Street in Dublin City Centre where Jennie set up her own business calling it, the “Irish Produce Company.” This comprised a restaurant and a shop that sold farm produce, honey and cakes all produced by Irish suppliers. Her buy Irish stance was ahead of her time. In 1900, Jennie was elected one of the four Vice-Presidents of Maud Gonne´s “Inghinidhe na hÉireann.” This movement sought complete Independence for Ireland. It eventually merged with Cumann na mBan. Jennie was also a member of the “Dublin Women´s Suffrage Association.” In 1903, she was elected as Poor Law Guardian for North Dublin, a public office she held for eight years. In 1906, Jennie became an executive member of the National Council of Sinn Féin. By 1911, she had risen to the position of Vice-President. She later became the party´s treasurer. In November 1913, the Irish Volunteers were established and the women followed suit in 1914 by founding Cumann na mBan. Jeannie was one of the founders and was elected the organisation´s first President in 1915. As a high ranking official in Cumann na mBan, she was actively involved in preparations for the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Proclamation was signed at a meeting held in her house in Henry Street. Jennie didn´t personally take up arms during the Rising but she and her daughter Nancy carried food from their restaurant to the rebels in the GPO as late as Wednesday of Easter Week. Jennie´s home and possessions were lost when her house on Henry Street was burnt in the fighting. In the period after the Rising, she provided aid to the families of Republican prisoners and she helped to reorganise Cumann na mBan. Dáil Éireann was established on 21st January 1919 and Republican Courts were set up in opposition to the courts of the Crown. Jennie set as one of the judges in North Dublin City. She became treasurer of Sinn Féin for a second time in late 1919. Jennie was elected as a member of Dublin Corporation in 1920. She continued to assist the Nationalist cause during the War of Independence and often provided safe refuge to men on the run from the British authorities. She supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the only leader of Cumann na mBan to do so and as a result was obliged to resign. Jennie recognised the need to create another platform to aid in the establishment of the new state and helped form Cumann na Saoirse (the League for Freedom) in March 1922. She was nominated as a member of the First Seanad which met in Dublin in December 1922. After the General Election of 1922, Jennie was elected Vice-President of Cumann na nGaedeal, the new pro-Treaty party. When Dublin Corporation was abolished in 1924, she was appointed as one of the three commissioners charged to run the capital. Over the years, Jeannie became disillusioned with the government and left the party and continued as an independent Senator. In 1934, she sat as a Fianna Fáil Senator until her retirement from public life in 1936. Jennie Wyse Power died on 5th January 1941 and was interred in the family plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Susan Denham nee Gageby is a retired Irish judge who served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 2011 to 2017. She was the first woman to hold the position. She served as a judge of the Supreme Court from 1992 to 2017 and was the third longest-serving member of the court on her retirement. She also served as a judge of the High Court from 1991 to 1992.
Mary Robinson was born on 21st May 1944 in Ballina, County Mayo. A distinguished constitutional lawyer and a renowned supporter of human rights, she was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and was a member of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva from 1987 to 1990. From 1969 to 1989, she sat in the Seanad for Trinity College and served as a whip for the Labour Party until resigning from the party in 1985. Mary Robinson was also a member of the Dublin City Council (1979-1983). Nominated by the Labour Party and supported by the Green Party and the Worker´s Party, Mary Robinson became Ireland´s first woman President in 1990. As President, she was the first head of state to visit Somalia after it suffered from Civil War and Famine in 1992 and the first to visit Rwanda after the genocide in that country in 1994. When her term of office ended, she became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). She was the first High Commissioner to visit China and also helped to improve the monitoring of human rights in Kosovo. In 2001, Mary Robinson served as Secretary General of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa. In 1998, she was elected Chancellor of Trinity College a post she held until 2019. After stepping down as the High Commissioner of the United Nations, Mary Robinson founded the nongovernmental organisation “Realising Rights-The Ethical Globalisation Initiative 2002-2010. Its central concerns included equitable international trade, access to health care and migration. She was also a founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders, served as Honorary President of Oxfam International and was a member of the Club of Madrid which promotes democracy. Mary Robinson was the recipient of numerous honours including Ambassador of Conscience awarded by Amnesty International for her human rights work and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mary Robinson is currently the Chair of the Elders, an independent global leaders organisation working together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet which was founded by Nelson Mandala in 2007
Thekla Beere was born on 20th June 1901 near Granard, County Longford. In 1924, she entered the Civil Service as a temporary clerk in the Statistics branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce. Having been granted a two-year leave of absence in 1925 on a Laura Spellman Rockefeller Fellowship, she spent the period that followed at Columbia University, New York, the Brooklyn Institute, Washington and Berkeley University of California. She worked in various government offices and research institutions in New York, Washington, Chicago and Ottawa. Thekla Beere travelled extensively and developed a lifelong enthusiasm for walking. In 1931, she returned to Ireland and became a founder member of An Óige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association providing affordable accommodation to those travelling around Ireland as backpackers, groups or families. She re-joined the Statistics Department and rose through the ranks of the Civil Service. Thekla Beere was appointed Principal Officer in 1945, working on providing supplies during the Emergency, developing Irish Shipping LTD and the preparation of the Transport Acts of 1944 and 1950 and the Harbours Act of 1946. In 1953, she headed the labour division that sponsored the Factories Act of 1955 and Office Pensions Act of 1958. She often led the Irish delegation to the International Labour Office in Geneva and was appointed to the chair of its finance committee. In 1959, she was appointed Secretary of the newly established Department of Transport and Power, the first woman to hold such a senior post in the Irish Civil Service. When she retired in 1966 from the Civil Service she chaired the Commission on the Status of Women. The report in 1972 examined issues such as the elimination of the marriage ban, maternity leave and equal pay which lead to the formation of the Council for the Status of Women. Thekla Beere was also a Governor of Rotunda Hospital, Dublin a member of the Alexandra College Council and President of both the Irish Film Society, An Óige and Governor of the Irish Times Trust from its establishment in 1974. She was also a director of the newspaper. Thekla Beere died on 19th February 1991 in Killiney, Dublin.
Seán O´Casey´s Three Dublin Plays
Issued 21st March 2023
Seán Ó´Casey the Irish playwright was born on 30th March 1880 in Dublin. With only three years of formal schoolboy education, he educated himself by reading. He supported Irish Nationalism and changed his name to its Irish form and learned Gaelic. His attitudes were greatly influenced by the poverty and squalor he witnessed in Dublin´s slums and by the teachings of the Irish Labour leader Jim Larkin. He became active in the labour movement and wrote for the “Irish Worker.” He also joined the Irish Citizen Army and drew up its constitution in 1914. Seán Ó´Casey is renowned for his three great, realistic Dublin trilogy of plays of Dublin´s slums in war and revolution; “Shadow of a Gunman,” Juno and the Paycock” and the Plough and the Stars.”
Shadow of a Gunman is a tragicomedy set during the War of Independence. It centres on the mistaken identity of a poet Donal Davoren who has come to room with Seamus Shields in a Dublin tenement slum. Many of the residents of the tenement mistake Donal for an IRA man on the run. Donal does not refute this as it wins him the affection of Minnie Power. Meanwhile, Seamus´s business partner drops off a bag at his room before he is killed in an ambush. The city is put under curfew as a result of the ambush and the Black and Tans raid the tenement. At this point, Seamus and Donal discover the bag contains explosives. Minnie Power takes the bag and hides it in her room. She is arrested and later shot and killed when the Black and Tans lorry she is taken away in is ambushed.
Juno and the Paycock is set in the working class tenements of Dublin during the Civil War and revolves around the misfortunes of the Boyle family. The father Captain Jack is an idler and a waster who claims to be unable to work because of pains in his legs which mysteriously appear whenever someone mentions work. Despite his family´s poverty, Captain Jack spends all his time and money at the pub with his friend Joxer Daly. The mother Juno is the only member of the family working at present, as daughter Mary is on strike and son Johnny is disabled after losing his arm in the War of Independence. News comes that the Boyles have come into a large inheritance and Captain Jack is soon flaunting his newfound wealth by buying a suit, new furniture, a gramophone and other luxuries on credit in anticipation of receiving the inheritance. Juno learns that Mary is pregnant and begs Captain Jack to use the last of the money to move the family to a different city. He angrily reveals that they will receive nothing due to an error made while drafting the will and referring to Jack only as my first cousin. As a result, numerous relatives are claiming the inheritance which is rapidly being eaten up by legal costs. Unable to cope with the stress, Captain Jack disowns his pregnant daughter and retreats to the pub to drink with Joxer. As the last of Captain Jack´s luxuries are being repossessed, several IRA men arrive and drag Johnny away to execute him for being an informer. His body is subsequently found on a country road riddled with bullets. Juno sends Mary to live with relatives and leaves to make a better life for herself. Captain Jack sometime later stumbles home drunk from the pub with Joxer unaware that his son is dead and that his wife and daughter have left him.
The third play in the trilogy, the Plough and the Stars addresses the 1916 Easter Rising. Newlywed Nora Clitheroe tries to keep her husband Jack from the revolution fervour sweeping through Dublin. But Jack becomes a commandant in the Irish Citizen Army and when the Rising begins, he leaves a pregnant Nora to help lead the fight and is killed. When Norah´s baby is stillborn, she loses her mind. Her condition prompts Bessie Burgass an embittered Irish Protestant who has lost a son to the rebels to become her caretaker. At the plays end, Bessie herself is killed by a sniper´s bullet. The premiere of the play in 1926 at the Abbey Theatre was met with riots condemning Seán Ó´Casey´s negative portrayal of the recent revolution and its heroes.
Bi-Centenary of the Founding of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts
Issued 20th April 2023
The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts was founded in Dublin in 1823 as a result of 30 Irish artists petitioning the government for a Charter of Incorporation. The first elected president was the landscape artist William Ashford. In 1824, architect Francis Johnson was made president. He had provided headquarters for the RHA at Academy House in Lower Abbey Street at his own expense. The first exhibitions took place in 1825 and were held annually from then on. To encourage interest in the arts, works were displayed by lot as prizes among subscribers. Works by Frederick William Burton, J. M. W. Turner and David Wilkie were presented in this way. The exhibitions and school prospered and by the end of the 19th century, the RHA was the leading Irish institution involved in promoting visual arts. Academy House was destroyed by fire during the 1916 Easter Rising with over 500 pieces of art lost including from artists Jack Butler Yeats, Madeline Green and John Lavery. After 1916, the RHA lacked a permanent premises for 23 years. In 1939, it settled into the house and garden of No.15 Ely Place. The quest to construct a new purpose gallery here took decades to complete
In the 1970s, the RHA finally constructed a new building in Ely Place, Dublin. This building replaced the gallery´s previous premises a Victorian House that had been home to Oliver St. John Gogarty. This was demolished and a modern gallery was built on the site. It opened to the public in 1985 for the 156th Annual Exhibition, the first the RHA held on its own premises in 69 years. The building houses six galleries and a large collection of Irish art. The RHA Drawing School has a large studio and six studios which are available to artists through open submissions. In 2007, the RHA closed for extensive renovations. When it reopened two years later with a magnificent limestone exterior, the new building now housed a Drawing and Painting School bringing education back to the academy for the first time since 1942.
Centenary of the Birth of President Hillery
Issued 27th April 2023
Patrick Hillery was born on 2nd May 1923 in Milltown Malbay, County Clare. In 1951, as a member of Fianna Fáil, he was elected to the Dáil. In the years following, he held four government ministries, Education (1959-1965), Industry and Commerce (1965-1966), Labour (1966-1969) and Foreign Affairs (1969-1972). In 1973, Patrick Hillery became Ireland´s first representative on the Commission of the European Community and achieved the post of Vice-President of the Commission. He succeeded to the Irish Presidency in 1976 upon the resignation of Cearbhall Ó´Dálaigh. When his turn of office ended in 1983, he was returned for a further seven years without an electoral contest. After leaving office in 1990, Patrick Hillery retired from politics. He died on 12th April 2008 in Dublin.
Centenary of the Admittance of the Irish Free State
Into the League of Nations
Issued 7th September 2023
On 10th September 1923, Ireland joined the League of Nations. The precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations was the first worldwide political body set up to encourage cooperation between countries following the First World War. The organisation was set up in January 1920, one year after Sinn Féin established Dáil Éireann. With the Civil War over, the Irish government was ready to move on and separate itself from Britain once and for all. Diplomat Michael MacWhite first enquired about Ireland´s application in January 1922. Many leaders felt that Ireland´s entry would be beneficial given the country´s close ties to the United States. The Irish delegates travelled to Geneva for the League´s fourth assembly in September 1923 led by Desmond Fitzgerald, the first Foreign Minister of the Irish Free State and W. T. Cosgrave the first Taoiseach. Cosgrave began his speech to the Assembly in Irish. All sixty members of the League including Britain voted to admit Ireland on 10th September 1923. Ireland remained a member of the League until its dissolution in 1947 and became a member of the subsequent United Nations in 1953.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
100 Years of Art on a Stamp
14th September 2023
These two First Day Covers with their eight stamps feature phase II of the Definitive Stamp Series “Art on a stamp; The Centenary of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 with a portrait of Daniel O´Connell by Leo Whelan (Irish Free State´s first commemorative stamp 1929), The Centenary of the Birth of John Millington Synge from a portrait by Jack B. Yeats (1971), An image from Wendy Walsh a botanical artist from her series of stamps on the theme Irish Flora and Fauna (1980), Historical Transport stamp designed by Charles Rycraft to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Irish railways (1993), A portrait of Brian Friel by James Hanley (2009), Irish Fashion Designers highlighting Paul Costello and Louise Kennedy (1980) and (2010), Contemporary Arts a painting by Diana Copperwhite (2014) and a design by Eileen Gray in celebration of Ireland´s preeminent furniture designer and architect (2015).
Bi-Centenary of the Death of James Gandon
Issued 9th November 2023
James Gandon is Dublin´s best known architect. He was responsible for such works as the Four Courts, the Custom House, the King´s Inns and additions to the Parliament House (now the Bank of Ireland). Gandon was born on 20th February 1743 in London of Huguenot extraction. He attended Shipley´s Drawing Academy where he studied the classics, mathematics, arts and particularly architecture. He became apprenticed to William Chambers. In 1780, James Gandon accepted an offer from John Beresford, Chief Commissioner of the Irish Revenue to design a new Custom House in Dublin. The first stone was laid on 8th August 1781 and was completed in 1791. In 1784, Gandon undertook the building of a new Courthouse in Waterford. During the 1780s, he became a consultant to the Wide Streets Commissioners of Dublin and designed a number of buildings including Carlisle Bridge and improvements to the Rotunda Lying-In-Wait Hospital and Gardens. He was also commissioned to make extensions to Parliament House, Westmoreland Street. Gandon was also appointed to complete the work of building the the new Four Courts. The foundation stone was laid on 3rd March 1786 and completed in 1802. The King´s Inns was his last great building in Dublin. James Gandon died on 24th December 1823. In the years since his death, much of his work especially the interiors have been destroyed and damaged. The Custom House was burnt down in 1921 by the IRA during the War of Independence. The Four Courts were shelled by government forces during the Civil War in 1922.
2024
St. Brigid´s Day and Imbolc Festival
Issued 1st February 2024
Saint Brigid of Ireland also known as Saint Brigid of Kildare is the female Patron Saint of Ireland. She was born in the year 451 near Dundalk to a pagan Gaelic Chieftain named Dubtach (later anglicized to Duff) and to a Christian slave mother named Brocca who was later sold after Brigid´s birth. St. Brigid was baptised by St. Patrick with whom she was to become friends. Legends of her holiness abound. One such tale recalls how the baby Bridget would vomit when a Druid tried to feed her, such was the impurity of the Pagan Druid. When older, she was constantly giving away her food and clothing to the poor. On one occasion. performing the miracle of having the food-stocks she had taken from the kitchen replenished. St. Brigid never forgot her mother and despite been forbidden, she left the family home, located her mother, negotiated her release from slavery and returned home to her father´s house. Her father had arranged her marriage to a poet, but Brigid had vowed to remain celibate and to do God´s work. So once more she left her home, this time forever. Together with seven other dedicated women, St. Brigid formed the first ever female Monastic Community in Ireland in the year 468. They helped the poor and were attributed with many miracles. St. Brigid founded a School of Art and a Monastery at Cill Dara (Church of the Oak) where Kildare Town now stands. The most famous miracle associated with St. Brigid tells of her confrontation with an Irish Chieftain. She asked him for a quantity of land, so that she could build a Monastic Community. The Chieftain replied that she could have whatever amount of land her cloak could cover. St Brigid took the cloak from her shoulders and cast it on the ground where to the amazement of all onlookers, it covered over 12 acres of the Chieftain´s land. He gave it willingly. St. Brigid died in the year 525 and was buried next to St. Patrick in Downpatrick, County Down. The date of her death, the 1st February became her feast day and since being celebrated to her memory is marked with the traditional creation of St. Brigid Crosses made from reeds.
An Post St. Bridget Postcards
50th Anniversary of Guaranteed Irish
Issued 8th February 2024
Guaranteed Irish is an Irish non-profit business organisation representing indigenous and international businesses operating in Ireland. The Guaranteed Irish symbol is awarded to companies which create quality jobs, contribute to local communities and are committed to Irish provenance. Member companies can use the Guaranteed Irish symbol on packaging and marketing materials for products and services certified by the organisation as having Irish origin or were at least 50% added value takes place in Ireland. The original Guaranteed Irish Campaign was developed from December 1974 by the Irish Goods Council. In 1982, the European Court of Justice ruled that since the Irish Goods Council received state funding, its Guaranteed Irish Campaign contravened the Treaty of Rome´s rules against protectionism. As a consequence, the campaign was separated from the Irish Goods Council into an independent non-profit organisation. Guaranteed Irish Limited which does not receive state funding was launched in 1984 by Irish President Patrick Hillery. In 2017, the organisation rebranded and repositioned by opening up membership to international companies operating in Ireland. As a non-profit organisation, Guaranteed Irish is entirely funded through membership fees which are used to actively promote Guaranteed Irish business through online and PR marketing activities.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
Ireland-US Relations 1924-2024
Issued 22nd February 2024
Ireland and the United States have for many generations shared a very close relationship. This has been forged through ancestral links, economic ties and cultural developments. On 7th October 1924, Timothy A. Smiddy became the Minster of Plenipotentiary (a diplomat who has full powers and authorisation to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a nation) of the new Irish Free State in Washington. In July 1927, the American Legation was founded in Dublin and Frederick A. Sterling became the American Envoy Extraordinary and Minster Plenipotentiary. In 1952, the Irish Ambassador to the United States sent a box of shamrock to American President Truman. This tradition has now evolved into an annual symbolic presentation of the Taoiseach to the United States President at the White House on St. Patrick´s Day. The central feature of the stamp is a bowl of Shamrock together with the countries flags.
Paddy Lineen First Day Cover
Bi-Centenary of the RNLI
Issued 29th February 2024
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded in 1824 as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. Its name was changed to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1854. The first RNLI station in Ireland was established in Arklow, County Wicklow in 1826. Over the next 100 years more stations sprang up around the island crewed as is still the case by local volunteers. The RNLI operates 46 lifeboat stations throughout the Island of Ireland including four on inland waters. They design and construct their own lifeboats and run both domestic and international water safety programmes. There are approximately 1,121 lifeboat crew members with 675 shore crew in Ireland. Over the past 200 years, the RNLI has responded to 20,899 incidents, saved 724 lives and came to the aid of 25,120 people in Ireland.
50th Anniversary of the Death of Austin Clarke
Issued 14th March 2024
Austin Clarke was born on 9th May 1896 in Dublin. He was educated at UCD where he was appointed in 1917 assistant lecturer in English to replace Thomas MacDonagh who had been executed for his part in the Easter Rising. Also in 1917, Austin Clarke published his first collection of poems “The Vengeance of Fionn.” He subsequently lost the lecturers job in 1922 and went to England where he was employed as a journalist and book reviewer. A playwright, the author of over twenty verse plays as well as a poet, on his return to Dublin in 1937, he was closely associated with the Abbey Theatre. In 1932, Austin Clarke won the National Award for Poetry at the Tailteann Games held in Dublin and became a foundation member of the Irish Academy of Letters at the invitation of W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. In 1938, Austin Clarke received the Casement Award for Poetry and Drama from the Irish Academy of Letters. He was the co-founder with Robert Farren of the Dublin Verse-Speaking Society which made its first broadcast in 1940 on Radio Eireann. He 1944, he co-founded the Lyric Theatre Company again with Robert Farren which performed verse plays twice-yearly at the Abbey Theatre until 1951. Austin Clarke was President of the Irish Pen in 1939-1942, 1946-1949, 1952-1954 and 1961. He was the author of three novels, three memoirs and some twenty collections of poetry. In 1966, an Honorary D Litt was conferred on him by Trinity College; in 1968 the Irish Academy of Letters awarded him its highest honour, the Gregory Medal; in 1972 he received the First American Irish Foundation Literature Award and was nominated for the Nobel Prize by Irish Pen. Austin Clarke died on 19th March 1974.
Creating the Branches of Government
Issued 11th April 2024
This First Day Cover with its two stamps celebrate the Centenary of the Ministers and Secretaries Act (1924) creating the Civil Service and the Courts of Justice Act (1924) establishing a new courts system and eleven government departments.
The Freeman´s Journal 1763-2024
Issued 25th April 2024
The Freeman´s Journal was published in Dublin from 1763 to 1924. In its early years, it spoke for the patriot opposition in the Irish Parliament in College Green. Under the ownership of Francis Higgins from 1784 to 1802, it had a dubious connection to the authorities in Dublin Castle. Higgins bequeathed the newspaper to Frances Tracy and when she married, it passed to her husband Philip Whitfield Harvey. Under his ownership, the Freeman severed its ties with the government. When Harvey died in 1826, he was succeeded by his son-in-law Henry Grattan son of the parliamentarian Henry Grattan and was the voice of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Westminster. In 1831, the Freeman´s Journal was purchased by Patrick Lavelle, an advocate of the Repeal of the Act of Union. In 1841, his widow sold the newspaper to Sir John Gray and the Gray family were associated with the Freeman´s Journal for the next fifty years. In 1890, the party split following the revelation of Parnell´s affair with Katharine O´Shea. The paper supported Parnell but when the anti-Parnellites launched their own daily newspaper “the National Press” in 1891, the Freeman lost circulation and revenue and switched sides. The Freeman and the National Press later merged in 1892. There followed a long and bitter struggle for control of the paper between rival anti-Parnell factions until John Dillon MP gained control in 1896. Another prominent anti-Parnellite, Thomas Sexton became chairman of the Freeman´s Company in 1895, a position he held until 1912. The newspaper declined under his chairmanship. When William Martin Murphy transformed his newspaper into the modern mass circulation Irish Independent in 1905 at half the price of the Freeman, it sealed the Freeman´s fate. It began incurring trading losses and from 1912 the newspaper was run by a group of Irish Party members and subsidised by the party´s resources until it was sold off after the party´s defeat to Sinn Féin in the 1918 General Election. The newspaper´s last owner was Dublin businessman Martin Fitzgerald. he purchased the Freeman in 1919 and kept it going for five years. The Freeman´s Journal strongly supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 making it a target for the anti-Treaty side. In 1922, its printing plant was destroyed by these forces. The last edition of the Freeman´s Journal was issued on 19th December 1924. The First Day Cover shows an image of the front page of this last edition.
An Post Freeman´s Journal Postcard
Public Art
Issued 30th May 2024
First Ordnance Survey of Ireland
Issued 20th June 2024
Iconic Irish Voices
Issued 12th September 2024
On 12th September 2024, An Post issued a set of four commemorative stamps to honour Séamus Begley, Christy Dignam, Sinéad O´Connor and Shane McGowan. The stamp issue marks their passing and their contribution to Irish life and music.
An Post Iconic Irish Voices Postcards
An Post 2024 Christmas Postcard
2025
Irish Rugby Football Union 150th Anniversary
Issued 13th February 2025
Women in Stem
Issued 6th March 2025
An Post Women in Stem Postcard
Europa-National Archaeological Discoveries
Issued 8th May 2025
Irish Contemporary Art
Issued 5th June 2025
Tenth Definitive Stamp Series
Art on a Stamp-Phase 111
Issued 19th June 2025
Druid Theatre Company
Issued 24th July 2025
250th Anniversary of the Birth of Daniel O´Connell
Issued 31st July 2025
Irish Collectables and Memorabilia 