Irish postal service

indioblack

MOD EDIT> Posts copied from different thread as per MaDsL request. There are many elements of the irish postal service that can be of interest and they can be discussed here.
When was first Irish post service?
Images of Irish stamps?
Irish post boxes- Royal mail boxes painted green?
etc.
jonniebgood1<



Took a parcel into the post office this morning.
"What's the destination?"
"Ireland", I said.
"Southern Ireland?"
"Yes".
I'd written EIRE in big capitals. Why? Because I've been doing it since the early 1960's on all my mail to Ireland.
The important part was "Co.Cork" - it's destination.
The main thing is my mail always arrives - perhaps the postmen in Ireland are too polite to send it back.

pedroeibar1

Our postal service is still a state entity, so in my experience the service is better (definitely in rural areas.)
Nobody here sees it as a 'big deal', but writing/speaking in English the name is ‘Ireland’ and ‘Eire’ when writing in Irish. Addressing an envelope to ‘Eire’ when the rest of the address is in English is rather like writing Caerdydd for an address in Cardiff.

Fratton Fred

Is that the same postal service that writes "Eire" on its stamps?

pedroeibar1

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Is that the same postal service that writes "Eire" on its stamps?

Yes. Like all state and semi-state entities in Ireland the postal service is encouraged to use Irish in its communication. Its name - 'An Post' - is Irish and its old postboxes have the 'P 7 T' logo, which also is Irish. 'Eire' appearing on its own on the stamps is linguistically correct.
The Irish Postal Service always uses/used Eire on its stamps, except when we were the Irish Free State, when it used the Irish translation 'Saorstat Eireann'.

Great Britain AFAIK never puts the country name on its stamps, just the monarch's head.

getz

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Yes. Like all state and semi-state entities in Ireland the postal service is encouraged to use Irish in its communication. Its name - 'An Post' - is Irish and its old postboxes have the 'P 7 T' logo, which also is Irish. 'Eire' appearing on its own on the stamps is linguistically correct.
The Irish Postal Service always uses/used Eire on its stamps, except when we were the Irish Free State, when it used the Irish translation 'Saorstat Eireann'.

Great Britain AFAIK never puts the country name on its stamps, just the monarch's head.

what country should the the people in the UK put on their stamps,england,wales,scotland,northern ireland ?dont say britain because it is not a country,

pedroeibar1

getz wrote: »

what country should the the people in the UK put on their stamps,england,wales,scotland,northern ireland ?dont say britain because it is not a country,

Those in Scotland and Wales (devolved governments with a constitutional monarch) could put those names on stamps along with the monarch's head if they were allowed to do so.
My point from the outset has been that a letter addressed to
John Smith,
Main Street,
Newtown,
Co Cork.
EIRE

has the same linguistic error as a letter addressed to

John Smith,
Main Street,
Swansea,
CYMRU

MadsL

Is this a thread about the postal service now?

im invisible

I think its about to go postal allright

indioblack

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Those in Scotland and Wales (devolved governments with a constitutional monarch) could put those names on stamps along with the monarch's head if they were allowed to do so.
My point from the outset has been that a letter addressed to
John Smith,
Main Street,
Newtown,
Co Cork.
EIRE

has the same linguistic error as a letter addressed to

John Smith,
Main Street,
Swansea,
CYMRU

Quite agree.
This should become a thread about the postal service - long overdue!
The point of my previous post is that my mail gets to it's destination, even if incorrectly addressed.
I use Play.com to send cds to my brother in Cork and that's addressed "Ireland" - over 250 so far - they all arrived - well done An Post.
This really should be a thread about the post office.
Why do I write "Eire" on my letters? Don't know, really - always have done - mail sent to me from people in Ireland is addressed "England", (why not?, that's where I am!)
Perhaps it should be "UK".
Doesn't matter.

indioblack

indioblack wrote: »

MOD EDIT> Posts copied from different thread as per MaDsL request. There are many elements of the irish postal service that can be of interest and they can be discussed here.
When was first Irish post service?
Images of Irish stamps?
Irish post boxes- Royal mail boxes painted green?
etc.
jonniebgood1<



Hey!, I've started a thread and didn't even know it!
Thanks, jonniebgood - just wandered into History and Heritage and found this - my first thread on Boards. I'm feeling quite emotional about it.
This thread was inadvertantly started because a poster wanted me to stay on topic - the topic was the creation of the 26 counties - but this thread is going to be more interesting - if accidental.

Royal Mail post boxes painted green? Always made a joke about that - then I wandered down to the library in Mallow - and there was one in the wall! Now, would that be George V ?
And I'd like to know when air mail had to be used for letters, cards etc.
I had relatives in Cork who got their Christmas cards very late because I continued to put regular stamps on my mail.
I've had little contact with my English relatives, (old family history), so most of my contact was with Irish friends and relatives in Ireland.
So, for decades, the exchange of letters, cards, photographs was very important.
Before we had the telephone in the mail could be seriously important.
A telegram informed my mother here that my Irish grandfather was dead - it's an oft repeated story in Ireland with so many people leaving the country, like my mother.
People dying, getting married etc., sometimes the letter was the first you'd hear of it.
Cousins over there I'd played with as a child - and it seemed no time before you received a letter with their wedding photos in it.
Or, after a relative was deceased, you'd get a letter with a mass card in it.
My uncle used to send us goose at Christmas - though it was a bit "high" when it arrived! It's probably illegal to do that now!

So, although this thread was started accidentally, (and less than seriously), with a bit of thought - and my memories of Ireland a long time ago - it occurred to me that the postal contact I had with my relatives and friends then was important. People you only met, perhaps, once a year - some you wouldn't meet in a decade or even longer.
You knew the place, but you couldn't have the day to day experience of living there - because you lived here.
So the mail was an important, and sometimes vital, point of contact.

jonniebgood1

This site has some interesting information about the pillar boxes.

Following Irish independence in 1922, existing British pillar boxes were retained, and when the Irish Free State left the commonwealth following the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1949 existing pillar & wall boxes were then painted green. Many of these are extant around the country, retaining the monogram of the monarch who reigned at the time of the box's installation. The Department of Posts and Telegraphs continued installing similar pillar boxes and wall boxes, but with the initials SÉ (for Saorstát Éireann), a harp or the P & T logo, instead of a monarch's monogram.

A penfold pillar box in New ross. http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/Surveys/Buildings/BuildingoftheMonth/Archive/Name,1419,en.html

It is believed that only six such post boxes survive in Ireland including in Bray, County Wicklow, and Skibbereen, County Cork

indioblack

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

This site has some interesting information about the pillar boxes.



A penfold pillar box in New ross. http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/Surveys/Buildings/BuildingoftheMonth/Archive/Name,1419,en.html

Thanks for the links - I've bookmarked them - will study them later.

ardmacha

There is a continual implication that Ireland is "anti-British". It is worth noting that we simply repainted these postboxes, in other former colonies like Singapore they took anglegrinders to the crests on post-boxes.

Judgement Day

ardmacha wrote: »

There is a continual implication that Ireland is "anti-British". It is worth noting that we simply repainted these postboxes, in other former colonies like Singapore they took anglegrinders to the crests on post-boxes.

While there may be no 'official' policy of removing royal insignia from pillar boxes, it has been carried out here and there. Some years back Bertie's brother Noel (?) even suggested that all remaining pillar boxes have their Royal insignia removed before 2016 - clearly another person who cares for our heritage.

Good thread with plenty of pics on British postboxes in the Dun Laoghaire area: http://www.dunlaoghairecounty.ie/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2180

There's also an interesting book available from An Post here: http://www.irishstamps.ie/Shop/p-890-the-irish-post-box-silent-servant-and-symbol-of-the-state.aspx

Judgement Day

There's also a thread with some postboxes (full size and miniature) in the Collectibles & Antiques Forum. My post here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64861451&postcount=9 shows some examples of miniatures in my collection.

indioblack

Some good links on this page - more interesting than they might first appear. From the initially functional you can be led to design and architecture - and of course history.

phonejacker

if you were sending a letter/parcel from germany, new zealand, england or china for example and on the delivery address you wrote mr. sean ó Fathaigh, tuaim, co. na gaillimhe, éire. without the word ireland on it, would the letter make its way to ireland?

gobnaitolunacy

I'd imagine it would. In NZ or wherever they'd just look at the destination country...prob wouldn't take them too long to work out Eire = Ireland and stick it in the bag for Europe. Once it gets to Dublin, it would be up to An Post to deciper the rest.

nuac

Post office staff have a good record of getting incompletely addressed letters to the right person

Apanachi

phonejacker wrote: »

if you were sending a letter/parcel from germany, new zealand, england or china for example and on the delivery address you wrote mr. sean ó Fathaigh, tuaim, co. na gaillimhe, éire. without the word ireland on it, would the letter make its way to ireland?

Yep (at least it will from Germany and England - can't speak for China though)

Peregrinus

For most post offices it's a matter of pride to deliver letters to the intended addressee, no matter how cryptic the address.

Post offices are used to letters addressed in foreign languages. No doubt there's a manual somewhere that postal workers can consult to learn that a letter addressed to “Éire” goes to Ireland, a letter for “Suomi” is for Finland, and a letter for “Magyarország” should go to Hungary. Once it gets there, if the address in is the local language, local delivery is obviously no problem. And all pretty well all post offices, even those in countries which do not use the Latin alphabet, can take at least English and French in their stride. The Universal Postal Union requires it, and has done so since about 1888.

Still, having said that, they’re not all equally good at this. My experience, for what it’s worth. is that the US Postal Service is particularly slow-witted when it comes to handling letters addressed in a way which departs in even the smallest degree from what’s expected. It’ll get there, but it can take months.

Judgement Day

Slight diversion here - due to the reference to problems with strange addresses. This film - "The Night Mail" is about the Travelling Post Office trains of the LMS in Britain and the address problem rears its head. A classic documentary that should be in every trainspotter or postal history enthusiasts collection.

There's an Irish one on YouTube somewhere which I'll post when I find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns

Judgement Day

And here it is: "The Last Waltz". Quite how transferring the mails to road has improved things is beyond me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKjfwf5s4uY