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Ireland
Time
Traveler | Cool Facts! | Technology
| Post Explorer
Time
Traveler
The history of mail in Ireland goes all the way
back to 1638 when there were regular mail services between the major Irish
cities of Dublin, Belfast, Derry and Cork. Until mail coaches were introduced
into the system, mail was very expensive and it had to be manually delivered by
"post boys", probably what we now know as office boys. Instead of
using postage stamps then, a conveyance fee had to be paid at the post office.
This was greatly inconvenient for consumers and hence the system of stamps was
introduced. Ireland's capital Dublin probably holds the reputation of having the
most famous post office, as it was this very same building that suffered the
brunt of the attacks from the British during the Easter Rising.
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| A post office in Ireland. |
Cool
Facts!
During the Civil War of 1922
between the Provisional Government Forces (National Army) and the rebel forces
(IRA), Ireland was split into two parts.
The division of Ireland had some consequences on the postal service. This led to
a confusion of postal organization especially around the border between the
North and South as some addresses in the South were handled by a sorting office
in the North and vice versa.
The Civil War had destroyed much of the essential postal infrastructure and
documentation. The British Post Office had lent its stamps for usage by the
Irish Provisional Government. The British stamps were printed with Irish
markings to be used within Ireland.
Technology
Today,
the Irish mail service makes use of the road transport to link up as many cities
and villages in Ireland as possible. This is complemented by a modernized mail
sorting system at the central Dublin Mails Center. A whopping 1.2 million mail
items are sorted daily at the DMC.
The Irish
mail sorting machine is now capable of reading 4-5 line addresses as fast as an
average machine can read a postcode. Hence Irish addresses do away with
postcodes. When mail first enters the sorting process, the envelopes are
imprinted with serial barcodes. These barcodes enable machinery to constantly
read and check the correct sorting pathway of the mail throughout the sorting
process. If the address is recognized amongst a database of addresses
nationwide, the address information is directly inputted from the database
against the mail's assigned barcode.
Post
Explorer
Despite handling
large volumes of mail daily, the Irish postal system eliminates the need for a
postal code. The only extra thing they have from other postal codes are digit
code numbers. e.g. Dublin 2 would mean Zone 2 in Dublin City.
When sending mail
out from Ireland to a nearby European destination, include a prefix IRL in front
of the town name.
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