Overprints s of the Provisional Government (Jan–Dec 1922) consisted of overprinted
British stamps. The text in traditional
Irish orthography reads and translates as
Provisional Government of Ireland 1922. In 1922, as an interim measure before the first specially designed definitives were ready, a series of contemporary stamps of King
George V were
overprinted. 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, obtained the contract and completed all overprinting until 1937, when the final, high-value stamps were issued. Unoverprinted postal stationery and labels remained on sale until 1925. 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. three-line overprint on 2/6 King
George V stamp engraved by
J.A.C. Harrison Three distinct overprints were made, before and after the formal independence of the state on 6 December 1922. The
Provisional Government of Ireland () overprints were initially issued on 17 February 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 and the numeral date
1922 arranged in five lines of
seriffed text. The unoverprinted stamps remained valid for postage in what was to become the
Irish Free State until 31 March 1922. The second overprinted series also consisted of five lines, similar to the first series, and were released in a range of values from a half-penny to one shilling and were issued June–October 1922. These were overprinted by Thom and are easily distinguished from the first set by the sans-serif figures in "1922" and the full stop after the year, as per the picture above left. The
Irish Free State () overprints debuted on 11 December 1922, being the third set. This is a three-line overprint using a
sans-serif 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 and seldom written in English. The overprints were stamped first ("Provisional Government of Ireland") and later ("
Irish Free State"). Subsequent stamps nearly all used the name ("Ireland"), even though this was not the official name of the state until the
1937 Constitution took effect. The exceptions were issued in 1949 and 1950, and used or ("
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 official
name was not changed by the Act.
Fianna Fáil defeated the outgoing government in the
1951 election and abandoned the use of the description, reverting to the name on stamps and elsewhere. Originally, was written in
Gaelic type; from 1952 to 1979, many stamps had the name of the state in
Roman type, usually in
all caps, and often written
EIRE rather than , omitting the accent over the initial 'E'. In 1981 the Department of Posts and Telegraphs recommended the inclusion of the word "Ireland" along with "Éire" on stamps but the
Department of the Taoiseach vetoed the idea on the basis it could cause "constitutional and political repercussions" and that "the change could be unwelcome."
Definitives Since 1922, nine Irish definitive stamp series have been released. Besides different designs, there were changes involving the
watermark and eventually doing away with watermarked paper, changes in currency were also reflected on the stamps:
decimalisation in 1971, and
Euro changeover in 2002. The first twelve stamps, the low values up to 1
shilling, were issued during 1922–1923, while the three high values, 2/6, 5/- and 10/-, did not appear until 8 September 1937. Designs included:
Sword of Light,
Map of Ireland,
Celtic Cross,
Arms of the Four Provinces and
St. Patrick. Watermark and extra values were made until new designs, known as the
Gerl definitives, using early
Irish art motifs, 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 was denominated initially in pre-decimal
Irish pounds and later in decimal currency (both watermarked issues). It latterly appeared as unwatermarked stamps. These were the first definitives where all values were printed in full colour. On 9 September 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. For the centenary of the
1916 Easter Rising an eighth series of definitive stamps were issued on 21 January 2016 and will only be on sale for a period of one year. There are sixteen stamps divided into four groups of four categories named as: Leaders and Icons, Participants, Easter Week and The Aftermath. Following the withdrawal of the limited edition 1916 commemoration definitives, the ninth series made its debut on 13 January 2017 with an initial twelve designs based on objects described in
A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, a book by
Fintan O'Toole. Some of the objects illustrated are the Tara
Torcs, Broighter Boat and
Old Croghan Man Armlet. The balance of the series were to be issued over the next five years, and in July 2020, Phase IV of the ninth series were made available as eight new stamps illustrated the following objects: the
Ballinderry Sword, the four-metre long
Waterford Charter Roll, dating from 1215 to 1373, an original 15th or 16th century
Gallowglass gravestone (extant in Clonca, County Donegal), the 1790s
Robert Emmet's Ring, a 19th-century cooking pot from the
National Museum of Ireland, a 1911
Titanic launch ticket, a washing machine and a
Pentium processor. Several Irish definitives have been issued in
booklet and
coil formats in addition to the normal sheet configuration.
famous Irish people (statesmen, religious, literary and cultural figures, athletes, etc.),
fauna and
flora, works of art, and
Christmas.
Europa postage stamps 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, such as the
Constitution of the United States in 1939 or more recently, in 2016, the
World War I,
Battle of the Somme. and several golfers are shown on three
2006 Ryder Cup stamps. More recently, stamps have featured
U2,
Thin Lizzy and Irish rugby players and coach, such as
Johnny Sexton and
Joe Schmidt. File:Tostal_2_half_stamp.gif|1953 two-pence halfpenny
An Tóstal File:Stamp-Irl Roger Casement 50th (one shilling).jpg|1966 executed Irish nationalist
Roger Casement birth centenary File:Ireland 1957 Birth Centenary of Tomas O'Crohan.jpg|1957 birth centenary of author
Tomás Ó Criomhthain In September 2024 An Post published a collection of stamps honoring late Irish musicians
Sinéad O'Connor,
Shane MacGowan,
Séamus Begley and
Christy Dignam. Designed by Shaughn McGrath of Shaughn McGrath Creative, and printed in black and white, the four-stamp set marks the musicians’ passing and their unique contributions to Irish cultural life and music, entitled Iconic Irish Voices.
Miniature sheets commemorating the 50th anniversary of independence Some stamps were issued in the form of a
miniature sheet comprising from one to fours stamps of a single, or multiple, design from one issue printed on the same sheet and sold in that
format and up to July 2019, 114 miniature sheets had been issued. No specific airmail rate existed for the 1d and 3d stamps; all others paid a contemporaneous rate when first produced. These were the only airmail stamps ever issued The stamps were designed by
Richard J. King and
recess printed by Waterlow and Sons, London, until 1961, and thereafter by
De La Rue & Co, Dublin. The designs feature the ''Flight of the Angel Victor – Messenger of
St. Patrick – carrying the Voice of the Irish 'Vox
Hiberniæ' over the world'' flying over four well-known Irish historical landmarks, one from each of the
four provinces of Ireland:
Lough Derg (3d and 8d values),
Rock of Cashel (1d, 1/3 and 1/5 values),
Glendalough (1/- value) and
Croagh Patrick (6d value). These were printed in sheets of 60 stamps with an 'e'
watermark.
Postage dues Surcharges imposed by the Irish post office on mail bearing insufficient pre-paid postage had the
postage due 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 word , for
penny, 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 decimalisation. Hence, identifying the issue of a label requires further information: if 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 in the design, there is no explicit country identity on any of the others. The first four series use only Irish words. Until 1988, when the
Dublin Millennium 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. 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 owing 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, with a watermark of the
Royal Cypher of
George V. 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
Saorstát Éireann. This watermark was discontinued around 1940 when the country's name changed to
Éire (Ireland); it was replaced with
e watermark paper to represent Éire. Stamps of the period may have the watermark in any of several 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, with the 4th definitive series and the stamps commemorating the 50th death anniversary of
Kevin Barry in 1970 except for the
Gerard Dillon contemporary art stamp in 1972. ==Postal stationery==