Postage stamps of Ireland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The postage stamps of Ireland are issued by the postal operator of the independent Irish state

Irish War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...

. Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

when the world's first postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s were issued in 1840. These stamps, and all subsequent British issues, were used in Ireland until the new Irish Government

Irish Government

The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...

assumed power in 1922. Beginning on 17 February 1922, existing British stamps were overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

ed with Irish text to provide some definitives

Definitive stamp

A definitive stamp is a postage stamp, that is part of a regular issue of a country's stamps available for sale by the postal service for an extended period of time...

until separate Irish issues became available. Following the overprints, a regular series of definitive stamps was produced by the new Department of Posts and Telegraphs

Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (Ireland)

The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs was a senior post in the government of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland from 1924 to 1984, when the post and the department was abolished....

, using domestic designs. These definitives were issued on 6 December 1922; the first was a 2d stamp, depicting a map of Ireland (including Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, which remained a part of the United Kingdom). Since then new images, and additional values as needed, have produced of seven definitive series of different designs.

These were the major stamp productions for everyday use. Commemorative stamp

Commemorative stamp

A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...

s first appeared in 1929, and these now appear several times a year, celebrating many aspects of Irish life, such as notable events and anniversaries, Irish life and culture, and many famous Irish people. Some definitive and commemorative stamps have been produced in miniature sheet

Miniature sheet

A souvenir sheet or miniature sheet is a small group of postage stamps still attached to the sheet on which they were printed. They may be either regular issues that just happen to be printed in small groups , or special issues often commemorating some event, such as a national anniversary,...

, booklet

Postage stamp booklet

A postage stamp booklet is a booklet made up of one or more small panes of postage stamps in a cardboard cover. Booklets are often made from sheets especially printed for this purpose, with a narrow selvedge at one side of the booklet pane for binding. From the cutting, the panes are usually...

and coil

Coil stamp

A coil stamp is a type of postage stamp sold in strips one stamp wide. The name derives from the usual handling of long strips, which is to coil them into rolls, in a manner reminiscent of adhesive tape rolls...

configurations in addition to the common sheet layout. Postage due

Postage due

Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due.- Background :...

s and airmail

Airmail

Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...

s complete the stamp issues of the two, sequential, Irish stamp-issuing authorities. Two styles of watermark

Watermark

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...

were used though the overprinted issues came with the watermarks of the British stamps provided for overprinting by the British Post Office.

Oifig an Phoist, the Irish Post Office, was the section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs which issued all Irish stamps up to 1984. After the division of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs into two semi-state organisations

State-sponsored bodies of the Republic of Ireland

A State-Sponsored Body is the name given in Ireland to a state-owned enterprise , that is to say, a commercial business which is benficially owned, either completely or majority, by the Irish Government...

in 1984, An Post

An Post

An Post is the State-owned provider of postal services in the Republic of Ireland. An Post provides a universal postal service to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union...

took over the responsibility for all Irish postal

Mail

Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

services including the issuing of postage stamps.

British stamps used in Ireland

To identify postage stamps used in Ireland between 1840 and 1922, it is necessary to identify the postmark

Postmark

thumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...

cancelling the stamp as being from an Irish town. Stamps used during this period are referred to as Great Britain used in Ireland.

From 1840 to 1844, the Penny Black

Penny Black

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....

, and other stamps issued, were obliterated with the Maltese Cross

Maltese cross

The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta...

cancellation. There was no text or numeral to help identify any of these cancels as Irish, but some Maltese Crosses are uniquely identifiable with certain Irish towns, including Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Eyrecourt

Eyrecourt

Eyrecourt, historically known as Donanaghta , is a village in County Galway, Ireland. Eyrecourt is on the R356 regional road 12 km west of the Banagher bridge over the River Shannon.-History:...

, Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

, Hollymount

Hollymount

Hollymount is a village on the R331 regional road in County Mayo, Ireland. It lies mid-way between the towns of Ballinrobe and Claremorris in the plains of South Mayo. It has a post office, a mini-mart, a community center , a small fuel/petrol station, and various public houses. It also has a...

, Limerick

Limerick

Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

and Mullingar

Mullingar

Mullingar is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1542, proclaimed Westmeath a county, separating it from Meath. Mullingar became the administrative centre for County Westmeath...

. From 1844 on, the cancels used included text or numerals that identified the post town

Post town

A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system. Including the correct post town in the address increases the chances of a letter or parcel being delivered on time. Post towns are usually based upon the location of...

. Cancels of both types are easier to identify if the stamp is still affixed to a cover

Cover (philately)

In philately, the term cover pertains to the outside of an envelope or package with an address, typically with postage stamps that have been cancelled and is a term generally used among stamp and postal history collectors. The term does not include the contents of the letter or package, although...

, since this makes the complete postmark visible, but a stamp no longer affixed to a cover may still permit identification of the town of use if enough of the postmark can be seen on the stamp itself.

Stamp issuing authorities

Between 1922 and 1983 Oifig an Phoist, the Irish Post Office, a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs

Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (Ireland)

The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs was a senior post in the government of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland from 1924 to 1984, when the post and the department was abolished....

(P&T), issued all postage stamps in the 26 counties of Ireland

Counties of Ireland

The counties of Ireland are sub-national divisions used for the purposes of geographic demarcation and local government. Closely related to the county is the County corporate which covered towns or cities which were deemed to be important enough to be independent from their counties. A county...

. During this time they employed some of the following companies to overprint

Overprint

or print

Security printing

Security printing is the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes, passports, tamper-evident labels, product authentication, stock certificates, postage stamps and identity cards...

the stamps: Dollard, Thom, Irish Government Printers, Waterlow and Sons

Waterlow and Sons

The Waterlow and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver of currency, postage stamps, stocks and bond certificates established in 1897, in England.-Portuguese Bank Note Crisis:...

(London), De La Rue and Co.

De La Rue

De La Rue plc is a British security printing, papermaking and cash handling systems company headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire. It also has a factory on the Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead, and other facilities at Loughton, Essex and Bathford, Somerset...

, Bradbury Wilkinson

Bradbury Wilkinson

Bradbury Wilkinson & Co were an English engraver and printer of banknotes, postage stamps and share certificates. The original company was begun in 1856 by Henry Bradbury . In 1861 the company was established at New Malden in Surrey where it remained until the 1986 when it was acquired by De La Rue...

and Co., Ltd., (London), Harrison and Sons

Harrison and Sons

Harrison and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver and printer of Postage stamps and Banknotes.The company was established in 1750 by Thomas Harrison and it obtained its first Post Office contract in 1881. The company won the contract to print the single colour United Kingdom Edward VII...

Ltd., (London) and Irish Security Stamp Printing Ltd.

Since 1984, An Post
An Post
An Post is the State-owned provider of postal services in the Republic of Ireland. An Post provides a universal postal service to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union...

has issued all Irish postage stamps. Most have been printed by Irish Security Stamp Printing Ltd., though a small number were printed by Harrison and Sons Ltd., (London), Questa, Walsall Security Printing, Prinset Pty Ltd., (Australia) and SNP Cambec (Sprintpak) (Australia).

Forerunners

In stamp collecting

Stamp collecting

Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...

circles, the word forerunner
Forerunner (stamp)
In philately, a forerunner is a postage stamp used before a region or territory issued stamps of its own. The term also includes stamps of the political predecessors of a country...

usually describes a postage stamp used during the time period before a region or territory issues stamps of its own. However, in Irish reference books, such as Handbook of Irish Philately, the term forerunners usually refers to political and propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

labels. These often resemble stamps, but few of them were used on Irish mail and they had no legal standing

Standing (law)

In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case...

for mail in Ireland.

Four values, 1c, 3c, 24c (deep-green), and 24c (mauve-purple) were produced in New York by the Irish veterans of the U.S. Civil War and are known as the 1865–67 Fenian issue. The 1893 colonial design are unofficial essays

Essay (philately)

In philately, an essay is a design for a proposed stamp submitted to the postal authorities for consideration but not used, or used after alterations have been made. By contrast, a proof is a trial printing of an accepted stamp....

and are classed as bogus.

Between 1907 and 1916, Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

, one of the nationalist organisations of the time, issued propaganda labels symbolising Irish nationhood

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

. Their use as stamps was forbidden by Post Office regulations. The first design was a Celtic Cross

Celtic cross

A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...

, similar to one later adopted for two definitive stamps of 1923, and the second depicts a female figure and harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

in an oval frame. In 1912, labels inscribed "Imperial Union" appeared, with a design of a larger harp and female figure. These labels, expressing unionist

Unionism in Ireland

Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...

sentiments, are believed to have been printed in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

as a counter to the Sinn Féin labels. After the Home Rule

Home Rule Act 1914

The Government of Ireland Act 1914 , also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.The Act was the first law ever passed by the Parliament of...

Bill for Ireland was passed in parliament, an Irish Republican body issued labels in 1916 with the portraits of three nationalist heroes known as The Manchester Martyrs
Manchester Martyrs
The Manchester Martyrs – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an organisation dedicated to ending British rule in Ireland. They were executed for the murder of a police officer in Manchester, England, in 1867, during...

against an Irish tricolour background. Forgeries of these labels are common. Following the Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

of 1916, American sympathisers printed eight ERIE PUIST labels showing portraits of seven prominent leaders and a harp and shamrock label. The misspelling ERIE for ÉIRE

Éire

is the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...

could have been because of hasty preparation.

The Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)

The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and...

, that controlled much of the southern part of the country during the Irish Civil War

Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....

, issued a 1d, 2d and 6d label, mainly because of a stamp shortage. These were printed in Cork and were to be put on sale in August 1922, but in the meantime the Irish Free State

Irish Free State

The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...

army landed near Cork and the IRA set fire to their own barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

before they retreated from Cork, destroying most of the labels.

Essays

The Postmaster General of the Irish Free State issued an invitation to firms in Dublin and London on February 1, 1922 for the submission of designs for a permanent definitive stamp issue, and by March several designs had been submitted. The following companies and printers provided essays

Essay (philately)

: Dollard Printing House Ltd., Hely Ltd., Perkins Bacon & Co.

Perkins Bacon

Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840.- Origins :...

, and O'Loughlin, Murphy & Boland.

Overprints

In 1922, as an interim measure before the first specially designed definitives were ready, a series of contemporary stamps of King George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

were overprint

Overprint

ed. The unoverprinted stamps were issued and in use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1912 and 1922 and continued in use in Great Britain and Northern Ireland until 1936. Three printing firms held overprinting contracts: Dollard Printing House Ltd., Alex. Thom & Co Ltd., and Harrison & Sons. In June 1925 the Government Printers, Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...

, obtained the contract and completed all overprinting until 1937, when the final, high-value stamps were issued.

Collecting and identifying the overprints can be an arduous task as there are numerous variations in the overprint settings. Feldman

David Feldman (philatelist)

David Feldman is a professional philatelist, author and auctioneer, chairman of David Feldman SA, a Geneva based philatelic auction company that has attained record prices for some of the most famous postage stamps of the world...

states "the complex details of plating, shading, overprint colours, accurate measurements, to mention a few, often discourage even the most enthusiastic collector". Three specialised books, or catalogue chapters, (Freeman & Stubbs, Munk and Meredith), issued within five years of issue have concentrated on this topic and Meredith is regarded as unequalled.

Two distinct overprints were made, before and after the formal independence of the state on December 6, 1922. The Provisional Government of Ireland (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) overprints were initially issued on February 17, 1922, with eight low-value and three high-value stamps overprinted by Dollard and four by Thom. This overprint is composed of the four words Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann and the numeral date 1922 arranged in five lines of serif

Serif

In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...

fed text. The unoverprinted stamps remained valid for postage in Ireland until March 31, 1922.

The Irish Free State

Irish Free State

(Saorstát Éireann) overprints debuted on December 11, 1922. This is a three-line overprint using a sans-serif

Sans-serif

In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without"....

typeface and was done by Thom, Harrison and the Government Printers. The last overprinted stamps were the Waterlow & Sons re-engraved King George V 2/6, 5/- and 10/- values that appeared in 1934 and were overprinted in 1937 for use in Ireland.

Name of state

On stamps, the name of the state has always been written in Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

and rarely also written in English. The overprints were stamped first Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann ("Provisional Government of Ireland") and later Saorstát Éireann ("Irish Free State"). Subsequent stamps nearly all used the name Éire ("Ireland"), even though this was not the name of the state until the 1937 Constitution

Constitution of Ireland

The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...

took effect. The exceptions were issued in 1949 and 1950, and used POBLAĊT NA hÉIREANN or Poblacht na h-Éireann ("Republic of Ireland"). This phrase is the official description of the state specified in the Republic of Ireland Act, which came into force in April 1949; the state's name was not changed by the Act. Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...

defeated the outgoing government in the 1951 election

Irish general election, 1951

The Irish general election of 1951 was held on 30 May 1951. The newly elected members of the 14th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 13 June when the new Taoiseach and government were appointed....

and abandoned the use of the description, reverting to the name on stamps and elsewhere. Originally, Éire was written in Gaelic type; from 1952 to 1979, many stamps had the name of the state in Roman type

Roman type

In typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 1400s, based on the pairing of inscriptional capitals used in ancient Rome with Carolingian minuscules developed in the...

, usually in all caps

All caps

In typography, all caps refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters. All caps is usually used for emphasis. It is commonly seen in the titles on book covers, in advertisements and in newspaper headlines...

, and often written EIRE rather than ÉIRE, omitting the síneadh fada accent over the initial 'E'.

Definitives

Since 1922, seven Irish definitive stamp series have been released. Besides different designs, there were changes involving the watermark

Watermark

and eventually doing away with watermarked paper, changes in currency were also reflected on the stamps: decimalisation

Decimal Day

Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-Old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...

in 1971, and Euro changeover

Introduction of the euro

The euro came into existence on 1 January 1999, although it has been a goal of the European Union and its predecessors since the 1960s. After tough negotiations, particularly due to opposition from the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating...

in 2002.

The first twelve stamps, the low values up to 1 shilling

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

, were issued during 1922–1923, while the three high values, 2/6, 5/- and 10/-, did not appear until September 8, 1937. Designs included: Sword of Light, Map of Ireland, Celtic Cross
Celtic cross
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...

, Arms of the Four Provinces
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...

and St. Patrick. Watermark and extra values were made until new designs, known as the Gerl definitives, using early Irish art

Irish art

The early history of Irish art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze Age artefacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the medieval period...

motifs

Motif (art)

In art, a motif is an element of a pattern, an image or part of one, or a theme. A motif may be repeated in a design or composition, often many times, or may just occur once in a work. A motif may be an element in the iconography of a particular subject or type of subject that is seen in other...

, were produced in 1968. These were the first new designs in 31 years for the high values and 46 years for the low values. The Gerl series were denominated initially in sterling and later in decimal currency (both watermarked issues) and lastly as unwatermarked stamps.

Between 1982 and 1988 a series based on Irish architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

through the ages was released, with line drawings by Michael Craig and graphics by Peter Wildbur. It contained twenty-eight stamps, with values ranging from 1p to £5. Stamps based on Irish cultural heritage

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...

followed between 1990 and 1995. Irish birds feature in the 1997 series that span the conversion of currency from the Irish pound

Irish pound

The Irish pound was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £...

, through dual currency to the introduction of the Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

. These were the first definitives where all values were printed in full colour. On September 9, 2004 new stamps, featuring flowers native to the woodlands and hedgerows of Ireland, become available. These were replaced in September 2010 by a seventh series featuring animals and marine life using photographic images.

Several Irish definitives have been issued in booklet

Postage stamp booklet

and coil

Coil stamp

formats in addition to the normal sheet configuration.

Commemoratives

Irish postage stamps have been released to commemorate a wide variety of Irish topics, such as Irish notable events and anniversaries, aspects of Irish life and culture, famous Irish people (statesmen, religious, literary and cultural figures, athletes, etc.), fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

and flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

, works of art, and Christmas

Christmas stamp

Many nations of the world issue Christmas stamps, postage stamps with a Christmas theme and intended for use on seasonal mail such as Christmas cards. These stamps are regular postage stamps, unlike Christmas seals, and are usually valid for postage year-round...

. Europa postage stamp

Europa postage stamp

Europa stamps have been issued annually since 1956. First sets representing the founding 6 members of the ECSC, European Coal and Steel Community, then by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations in 1959, and by PostEurop since 1993...

s have been issued since 1960 to celebrate membership of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), and international events have also been commemorated.

The first commemorative, a set of three Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...

stamps, appeared on June 22, 1929. Until the mid-1990s, with only three exceptions in 1943, 1977 and 1979 for Douglas Hyde

Douglas Hyde

Douglas Hyde , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn , was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945...

, Louis le Brocquy

Louis le Brocquy

Louis le Brocquy is an Irish painter born in Dublin. His work has received many accolades in a career that spans seventy years of creative practice...

and Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

respectively, it was policy to not depict living persons. This policy has been put aside and since 1995 there have been several such issues, mainly depicting athletes; for instance 30 stamps were issued showing living Irish sportsmen for the Millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

and several golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

ers are shown on three 2006 Ryder Cup

2006 Ryder Cup

The 36th Ryder Cup Matches were held 22–24 September 2006 at the K Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Team Europe won the competition by a score of 18½ to 9½ points, equalling their record winning margin of 2 years earlier. This was the first time Europe had achieved three successive victories...

stamps.

Miniature sheets

Some stamps were issued in the form of a miniature sheet comprising from one to sixteen stamps of a single, or multiple, design from one issue printed on the same sheet and sold in that format

Paper size

Many paper size standards conventions have existed at different times and in different countries. Today there is one widespread international ISO standard and a localised standard used in North America . The paper sizes affect writing paper, stationery, cards, and some printed documents...

. The miniature sheets are most often produced in addition to the same designs issued as single stamps.

The first miniature sheet of four stamp on stamp postage stamps was issued in 1972 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Irish postage stamp.
This was followed by a four-stamp sheet to commemorate the bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence

United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...

; the stamps in this sheet were also available as single stamps. A set of four stamps showing Irish wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

was issued in sheet form and also as single stamps in 1980.

Since 1983 miniature sheets have been produced with increasing frequency, from at least one per year initially to several sheets more recently.

Airmails

Seven Irish airmail stamps were issued between 1948 and 1965 in the 1d, 3d, 6d, 8d, 1/-, 1/3 and 1/5 values. No specific airmail rate existed for the 1d and 3d stamps though their use was permitted on non-airmail correspondence; all others paid a contemporaneous rate when first produced. These were the only airmail stamps ever issued but many definitives and commemoratives have been produced in values that paid the postage rate for airmail service.

The stamps were designed by R.J. King

Richard King (artist)

Richard Joseph King was an Irish stained glass artist and illustrator. He was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland, where his father was a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary. In 1926 he became a student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and he entered the stained glass studio of...

and recess

Photogravure

Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a...

printed by Waterlow and Sons, London, until 1961, and thereafter by De La Rue & Co

De La Rue

, Dublin. The designs feature the Flight of the Angel Victor – Messenger of St. Patrick
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....

– carrying the Voice of the Irish 'Vox Hiberniæ
Hibernia
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe , Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne . In his book Geographia Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of...

' over the world flying over four well-known Irish historical landmark

Landmark

This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...

s, one from each of the four provinces of Ireland

Provinces of Ireland

Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...

: Lough Derg

Lough Derg (Donegal)

Lough Derg is a small lake in County Donegal, Ireland, about seven kilometres north of the border village of Pettigoe...

(3d and 8d values), Rock of Cashel

Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel , also known as Cashel of the Kings and St. Patrick's Rock, is a historic site in Ireland's province of Munster, located at Cashel, South Tipperary.-History:...

(1d, 1/3 and 1/5 values), Glendalough

Glendalough

Glendalough or Glendaloch is a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is renowned for its Early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin, a hermit priest, and partly destroyed in 1398 by English troops....

(1/- value) and Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick , nicknamed the Reek, is a tall mountain and an important site of pilgrimage in County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. It is from Westport, above the villages of Murrisk and Lecanvey. It is the third highest mountain in County Mayo after Mweelrea and Nephin. On "Reek Sunday", the last...

(6d value). These were printed in sheets of 60 stamps with an 'e' watermark

Watermark

Postage dues

Surcharges imposed by the Irish post office on mail bearing insufficient pre-paid postage had the postage due

Postage due

Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due.- Background :...

collected by the use of these labels. Since 1925 there have been six series printed, with the design remaining the same until 1980, though the colour and watermarks have changed. The Irish

Irish language

word pingin, for penny

Penny

A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...

, is used in both £.s.d and decimal currency, but because it has the same meaning in each, the value on the label does not indicate whether the label was issued before or after decimalization. Hence identifying the issue of a label requires further information: if a collectors knows the date of use, the existence of a watermark and if so which type, and the specific colour, identification will be easier. For example, the 3d value was blue between 1940 and 1969, and stone colour from 1971 until 1980; it changed from a watermarked to a non-watermark paper in 1978. Additionally the 1, 5 and 8 pence values are seen in two different colours depending on the issue, while the d, 1d, 2d and 6d are seen with both watermark varieties. Except for the sixth issue, which has the word Éire

Éire

in the design, there is no explicit country identity on any of the others. The first four series use only Irish words.

Sterling issues

The first issue consisted of four values released on February 20, 1925; d, 1d, 2d and 6d. Typographed by the Government Printers in Dublin Castle on 'se' watermarked paper. The sheets were printed in larger sheets of 180 divided into three panes of 60 labels. The second issue had ten values: d, 1d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 5d, 6d, 8d, 10d and 1/-, and were printed on 'e' watermarked paper between 1940 and 1969. Other details are the same.

Decimal issues

A third issue was made up of seven labels and issued in decimal currency in the following values: 1p, 1p, 3p, 4p, 5p, 7p and 8p. In the fourth issue the 3p, 4p and 5p values were reissued in non-watermarked paper on March 20, 1978. A new design, printed by photogravure

Photogravure

, and appeared on June 20, 1980 in ten values: 1p, 2p, 4p, 6p, 8p, 18p, 20p, 24p, 30p and 50p made up the fifth issue. The sheet format was two panes of 100 divided by a gutter margin

Gutter (philately)

The philatelic use of the word gutter is the space left between postage stamps which allows them to be separated or perforated. When stamps are printed on large sheets of paper that will be guillotined into smaller sheets along the gutter it will not exist on the finished sheet of stamps...

. The sixth issue consisted of ten newly designed labels by Q Design and lithographically printed by ISSP on non-watermarked paper on October 6, 1988. The values were: 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 5p, 17p, 20p, 24p, 30p, 50p and £1. No Euro currency postage dues have been produced.

Booklets

Stamp booklets

Postage stamp booklet

were first put on sale on August 21, 1931. Booklet construction was a lightweight cardboard

Paperboard

Paperboard is a thick paper based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single...

cover stitched

Lockstitch

A lockstitch is the most common mechanical stitch made by a sewing machine. The term "single needle stitching", often found on dress shirt labels, refers to lockstitch.-Structure:...

on the left-hand side with panes of stamps (usually four panes), advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

panes and interleaving bound in. Until 1956 most booklets had half of the front cover devoted to advertising, and until 1963 booklets also had serial numbers on the front cover: two numbers indicated the year of issue and serial number (in that order on the early issues but with the order reversed for later issues), until 1963 when the serial numbers ceased.
Since 1983, most booklets are no longer stitched; the stamp pane, or panes, are glued into a folded card cover.

Until 1988, when the Dublin Millennium

Irish anniversary festivals

In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of areas in the Republic of Ireland held year-long festivals commemorating historic anniversaries. The country was in an economic depression at the time and these were excuses for some civic pride; the anniversaries chosen were often rather arbitrary and were...

booklet containing commemorative stamps was issued, all booklets contained only definitive stamps. Since then, An Post has issued both commemorative and definitive booklets, with three times as many commemorative booklets issued. In 1990 An Post issued the first booklet mixing definitive and commemorative stamps in one booklet and also on a single pane.

Many booklet stamps can be identified by one non-perforated edge, though a few are perforated on all edges. On booklets up to 1977, the printing plate construction enabled both upright and inverted watermarks in equal quantities owning to a gutter dividing rows 6 and 7 in the sheets of 12 × 10 stamps. The gutter was used for stitching during assembly, requiring rows 4–6 and 10–12 to be turned through 180 degrees so those panes could be stitched on the left of the booklet.

Watermarks

The Irish overprinted stamps came, as supplied from the printers in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, with a watermark of the Royal Cypher

Royal Cypher

In modern heraldry, a royal cypher is a monogram-like device of a country's reigning sovereign, typically consisting of the initials of the monarch's name and title, sometimes interwoven and often surmounted by a crown. In the case where such a cypher is used by an emperor or empress, it is called...

of George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

. The first Irish watermark was a stylised design of the two overlapping letters 's' and 'e' making an 'se' watermark representing the name of the country Saorstat Éireann (Irish Free State). This watermark was discontinued around 1940 when the country's name changed to Éire
Éire
is the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...

(Ireland); it was replaced with 'e' watermark paper to represent Éire. Stamps of the period may have the watermark in any of several different states of inversion and rotation attributable to the way the paper was fed into the printing machines.

Around 1971, the use of watermarks was discontinued by the Irish stamp-issuing authority, and current stamps issued by An Post do not use a watermarked paper.

Postal stationery

A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...

have been produced in the form of registered envelopes, postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s, envelopes, letter cards, newspaper wrappers, airletters and telegram forms with different designs of impressed stamp applied to show that postage had been pre-paid. With the exception of limited early usage of previously issued British postal stationery, which were not overprinted like the postage stamps, all post-paid impressed stamps before 1984 were based on variations of a design showing the country's name in Irish, Éire, with appropriate values in text and numeral tablets centred around an Irish harp motif. This was initially superseded by a shamrock

Shamrock

The shamrock is a three-leafed old white clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland. The name shamrock is derived from Irish , which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover ....

design that later became loosely based on the logo of wavy lines and the word POST used by An Post from 1984. An Post has also used some designs based on postage stamps as post-paid impressed stamps on Irish postal stationery.

A few early issued items were embossed but generally the post-paid impressed stamps were typographed. The Revenue Stamping Branch, Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

, applied the impressed indicia until 1984, when An Post employed the typographic printing method.

Official

At independence, a King George V 5 pence registered envelope and 1 shilling telegram form were printed in green for use in Ireland until domestic products became available. Irish telegram forms were only produced in 1/- and 1/6 values. Registered envelopes have appeared in many values and sizes. The printed (but non-stamped) registered envelopes were produced by private firms and stored by the Irish post office until needed, so envelopes from former periods, showing out-dated fees in the text, often received an impressed stamp for the current postal rate, creating many subtypes for collectors. Other products have carried post-paid imprint, such as commemorative and special issue postcards, including a series of St. Patrick's Day cards issued annually since 1984.

Up to 1987, airletters (also known as aérogrammes) were produced without any fee applied and were available free from post offices upon payment of the appropriate rate in force for the postage stamp purchased to mail the airletter. Most airletters with a pre-paid indicia have been sold at a small premium over the then-current aérogramme postal rate.

Stamped-to-order

Known as the stamping privilege, companies, associations

Voluntary association

A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...

and individuals were permitted to submit their own designed and pre-printed envelopes, cards, letter sheets, etc., to the Irish Post Office for impressing with an official post-paid indicia. Window envelopes were popular for printed matter

Printed matter

Printed matter is a term to describe printed material produced by printers or publishers, such as books, magazines, booklets, brochures and other publicity materials and in some cases, newspapers...

rate mail. The most prolific user was the Electricity Supply Board

Electricity Supply Board

The Electricity Supply Board , is a semi-state electricity company in Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a liberalised and competitive market...

which used meter reading and appointment cards for over forty years. Stamped-to-order postal stationery users included Blackrock College

Blackrock College

Blackrock College is a Catholic voluntary secondary school for boys aged 14–18, located in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. The College was founded by French missionaries in 1860, to act as a school and civil service training centre. Set in of grounds, it has an illustrious...

, Córas Iompair Éireann

Córas Iompair Éireann

Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...

, Esso

Esso

Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...

, Great Northern Railway

Great Northern Railway (Ireland)

The Great Northern Railway was an Irish gauge railway company in Ireland.The Great Northern was formed in 1876 by a merger of the Irish North Western Railway , Northern Railway of Ireland, and Ulster Railway. The Ulster Railway was the GNRI's oldest constituent, having opened between Belfast and...

, and John Player & Sons

John Player & Sons

John Player & Sons, known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. It is today a part of the Imperial Tobacco Group.-History:...

, Dublin. No stamped-to-order registered envelopes are known. Apparently An Post have withdrawn the stamping privilege without any public notice

Public notice

Public notice is a notice given to the public regarding certain types of legal proceedings.-By government:Public notices are issued by a government agency or legislative body in certain rulemaking or lawmaking proceeding....

, because stamped-to-order postal stationery has seldom been seen since An Post took control of the Irish Post Office in 1984, with only five users recorded by Jung. Between 1963 and 2000 a small number of philatelically influenced items are known produced by six users.

Collecting Irish stamps

Newly issued Irish postage stamps are available from the Philatelic Bureau of An Post

An Post

An Post is the State-owned provider of postal services in the Republic of Ireland. An Post provides a universal postal service to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union...

in the Dublin, General Post Office

General Post Office (Dublin)

The General Post Office ' in Dublin is the headquarters of the Irish postal service, An Post, and Dublin's principal post office...

. Commemorative and special issue stamps are usually available for one year from the date of issue. Until the mid-1960s the Irish stamp-issuing policy was very conservative, with only a few new ones each year; up to four or five commemoratives, usually of two values, plus the occasional updated, or new, definitives. During the 1970s and beyond, the quantity produced rose considerably.

Some collectors try to acquire a basic collection

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

of the more common stamps from 1922 onwards, though that can be difficult now due to the quantity issued. Many collectors concentrate on one type of stamp, such as definitives or commemoratives, or even one issue, such as Gerl definitives. The First Day covers, especially commemoratives with full sets affixed, are popular though the older issues are harder to find because less than a million of the high value stamps were printed in the early years (1929–1940s) for several issues, a far lower number than the 20-plus millions printed for most of the low values during the same period.

The overprint

Overprint

s, which proved very popular during their early years, are a complex topic giving an advanced collector a great philatelic challenge.

Numbering systems

The Irish Post Office has never publicised an official stamp numbering system for the postage stamps they issued, so collectors use a stamp numbering system

Stamp numbering system

Philatelists' traditional method of identifying postage stamps uniquely has long been to number each country's stamps consecutively; Norway #1 is the 4-skilling blue stamp issued in 1855, and so forth...

from one of the most popular stamp catalog

Stamp catalog

A stamp catalog is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting...

ues, such as Stanley Gibbons, Scott, MacDonnell Whyte, MDW (last edition 1991), Hibernian or Michel

Michel catalog

The Michel catalog is the largest and best-known stamp catalog in the German-speaking world. First published in 1910, it has become an important reference work for philately, with information not available in the English-language Scott catalog.The catalog started out as a price list for the dealer...

. There are differences between these numbering systems that result in a varying sequence of stamps in each listing, with some stamps included on some lists but not on others—usually varieties that the publishers think do not belong in a general catalogue. For instance, Ireland's first postage stamp, the 2d Map of Ireland, issued in 1922 is numbered 68 by Scott, 43 by Michel, D4 by Hibernian and MacDonnell Whyte and 74 by Stanley Gibbons.

Collectors tend to use the catalogues produced in their own region and language, so in the United States, Scott is used most often as evidenced by the use of Scott numbers in American stamp auction catalogues. In contrast, SG numbers are used in England and Ireland because Stanley Gibbons (a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

publisher) produces the catalogue of choice in those countries. Advanced and more specialist collectors have used the David Feldman, later called MacDonnell/Feldman, and later again called MacDonnellWhyte, catalogues between 1978 and 1991, and Hibernian catalogues (1972, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, 2002 and 2009 editions).

Stamp societies

Local societies:

DSS, Dublin Stamp Society, founded in 1948.

IPS, Irish Philatelic Society, is more than a century old, having started as the Irish Philatelic Club following a meeting in Dublin on February 12, 1901, of nineteen people who responded to a notice in the Irish Times.

International societies:

ÉPA, Éire Philatelic Association, is a US based Irish philatelic society.
IPC, Irish Philatelic Circle, is a British based Irish philatelic society.
FAI, Forschungs- und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.V., is a German based Irish philatelic society.

External links

An Post Irish Post Office
Dr Charles Wolf's collection of Irish postage stamps Forerunners Overprints
Effects of the Partition of Ireland on the postal service (1920–1922) (archive version)
IPTA, Irish Philatelic Traders Association Irish stamp dealer's trade group (archive version)
Irish Stamp Images A Search Site for European Stamps
Primary and secondary sources relating to stamps in Ireland (National Library of Ireland)

Philatelic societies

ÉPA, Éire Philatelic Association US based Irish philatelic society
FAI, Forschungs- und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.V. German based Irish philatelic society
Irish Airmail Society specialises in Irish Aerophilately
Aerophilately
Aerophilately is the branch of philately that specializes in the study of airmail. Philatelists have observed the development of mail transport by air from its beginning, and all aspects of airmail service have been extensively studied and documented by specialists.- Scope :The scope of...
Irish Philatelic Circle British based Irish philatelic society

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

British stamps used in Ireland

Stamp issuing authorities

Forerunners

Essays

Overprints

Name of state

Definitives

Commemoratives

Miniature sheets

Airmails

Postage dues

Sterling issues

Decimal issues

Booklets

Watermarks

Postal stationery

Official

Stamped-to-order

Collecting Irish stamps

Numbering systems

Stamp societies

See also

External links