Window on the Irish soul: A century of Irish stamps

The Royal Irish Academy

Lecture title: Window on the Irish soul: A century of Irish stamps Speaker: Stephen Ferguson, An Post Archivist and Museum Curator Chair: Barbara McCormack, Academy Librarian This lecture was recorded on 17 May 2023 and due to popular demand was held again during Heritage Week on 15 August 2023. Shortly after independence in 1922, the new Irish government turned its attention to the design of stamps to replace the contemporary British stamps then is use. Over the years since then Irish identity, culture and aspirations have been expressed through the medium of these miniature masterpieces with postage stamps acting as our ambassadors throughout the world. Long before the advent of the postage stamp, however, the idea of a stamp as a form of tax was well-known and the Academy’s library holds a remarkable album of eighteenth century revenue stamps which can, in a sense, be seen as the world’s very first stamp album. Highlighting such connections between the Academy and Irish stamps, Stephen Ferguson traces the changing nature of Ireland’s image from the conservative and inward-looking era of the early Free State to the more confident, socially progressive, and tech-savvy nation of today.