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.

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.