How will Ireland’s 2023 stamp program top last year’s Centennial extravaganza? 2022 was an incredible dive into modern Irish history, and topped off with a personal perennial favourite – food! It’s going to be a tough program to follow. 

There were a lot of strong stamps in 2022, but the best of the year was  Ailbhe Phelan’s first stamp design Irish Breakfast. 

Phelan described the design as a bit of a nostalgic passion project:

Working on the project made me reminisce back to my childhood. Our Dad collected stamps and he would, every year or so, go to the local library and borrow the mighty Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue. A tomb of a book, he would go through his collection and record the values of the stamps in it. In case that sounds like a serious stamp collection I can assure you there were no hidden gems, no Penny Black (not that rare to be honest) hidden among the pages. It was a most common, unremarkable stamp collection but we kids loved the whole magic of it all. The delight of triangular stamps (wow!), the fabulous colours of stamps from far flung places, the foreign lettering, I noted how some countries loved exuberant colourful stamps, some were serious and monotone, they all seemed to reflect the country’s character in a tiny piece of print. It’s what probably started me down the graphic design route! I can see us all now, spread over the kitchen table trying not to mix up our packets of used stamps we had bought or had been given and always, always, spilling the little gummed glassine stamp hinges used to stick the stamps into an album. Irish breakfasts stamp Collection — Ailbhe Phelan

Her stamps are a wonderful collision of memories, and knowing the artist’s personal association with stamps makes this set all the more endearing.  I hope we see more stamp designs from her. 

 The 2023 program continues with more history and another poke around various aspects of Irish culture. Alas, no food or vintage aircraft in sight, but we’ll muddle along with our disappointment. We can look forward to:

• more 100th anniversaries celebrating the birth of the  Irish Free State
• EUROPA 
• literary history which includes medieval manuscripts and modern plays
• art
• music

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January

50th Anniversary of Ireland joining the European Communities
Topics: history | society 

1 stamp, sheets  of 16, FDC, cancel
lithography

The stamp was designed by renowned Irish designer Ger Garland and features the flag of what is now known as the EU. The design is based on the stars of the EU flag and the six fundamental values of the EU – Human Dignity, Freedom, Democracy, Equality, Rule of Law, and Human Rights. An Post launches commemorative stamp marking 50th anniversary of Ireland joining European Community | The Irish Post

Designer: Ger Garland

Release date: January 5, 2023

February

The Book of Kells  
Topics: history | literature| design | art

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, 2 sheets of 16
lithography

The Book of Kells was created around the year 800AD and researchers believe that it was originally produced in a monastery on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. It appears to have been created by three artists and four scribes. When Iona was attacked by Vikings, the surviving monks moved to a sister monastery in Kells, Co. Meath. Some scholars believe that it was here that the Book of Kells was finished.  The History – TCD Visitors

This is a good video that runs through the most common questions people have about the Book of Kells, including how it was created and what it is. Very approachable and entertaining. 

Designer: Red&Grey using images from the Book
Red&Grey celebrate their 20th year in 2023. Since forming in 2003, they have won numerous awards, including 3 European Design Awards
8 Institute of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD) awards and 5 Irish Design Institute (IDI) awards.
They previously designed the 2021 Gaiety Theatre and the 2022 Irish Oscar Winners stamps for An Post. 

They wrote the following about their Book of Kells design on their IG page:

The two stamps show details of interlacing lions from the manuscript. Lions play a key part in the symbolism of the Book of Kells and in many instances are depicted with bare teeth, protruding tongues and wings. On the First Day Cover, a cat chases a mouse in possession of a communion host. Red&Grey (@redandgrey_) • Instagram photos and videos

If you click on the link above, you can scroll through the enlarged images they posted. 

Release date: February 23, 2023

March

Women in Public Life
Topics: women | public life | history | society

4 stamps, FDC, cancel, sheets of 16
lithography

Mary Robinson – first woman President of Ireland, served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and is Chair of the Elders, Realizing Rights and the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Change.

Susan Denham – barrister, senior counsel, High Court judge and a member of the Supreme Court who also served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 2011 to 2017, the first woman to hold the position.

Jennie Wyse Power (1858 – 1941) was a founding member and former president of Cumann na mBan, long serving Senator and activist against gender discrimination.

Thekla Beere (1901-1991) was the first woman appointed Secretary of a government department and in 1970, chaired the Commission on the Status of Women.
An Post press release March 3, 2023

Mayo native among women honoured on new stamps | Connaught Telegraph (con-telegraph.ie)

Designer: Design HQ

Release date: March 2, 2023

Irish Country Music
Topics: music

5 stamps in booklet format, FDC, cancel

• Big Tom
• Cliona Hagan
• Philomena Begley
• Daniel O’Donnell
• Nathan Carter

For our stamps, we chose a distinctive design approach that calls to mind the traditional method of communicating local events and social occasions in rural Ireland. Very often, letterpress posters were the only such visual means. The design format, developed by Detail, focuses on this aspect and on the strong sense of community reflected by the Irish country music industry. Mixed Booklet of 5 Stamps (Keep It Country) (anpost.com)

Designer: Detail
Details’ design association with An Post dates to 2015 with their Celebration of Science stamp. Other stamps include 2017 Francis Ledwidge, 2018 Irish Scientific Discoveries and Christmas, 2019 Love & Marriage, Astronauts with Irish Heritage, 2020 Father Ted 25th Anniversary and 2022 Coláistí Samhraidh, 100 Years of History.

Release date: March 23, 2023

April

Sean O’Casey’s Three Dublin Plays
Topics: literature | writers 

3 stamps

• The Shadow of a Gunman 1923
• Juno and the Paycock 1924
• The Plough and the Stars 1926

Designer: Design HQ

Release date: April 3, 2023

Bicentenary of the Founding of the Royal Hiberian Academy of Arts
Topics: history | art

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, sheets of 8
lithography

RHA Gallery – (Royal Hibernian Academy)

Designer: Zinc Design Consultants
Zinc Design has created a number of stamps for AnPost, including the 2020 History of Ireland series that included the beautiful Centenary of first Trans-Atlantic Flight ATM stamp.

Release date: April 20, 2023

Centenary of the Birth of President Patrick Hillery
Topics: history | people 

1 stamp, sheets of 8, FDC, cancel
lithography

Former president Patrick Hillery dies at 84 – The Irish Times 

Designer: So Studio  

Release date: April 27, 2023

May

Junk Kouture

4 stamps, 4 postcards, FDC, cancel
lithography

Jun Kouture began in Ireland 2010 

…as a small independent competition for local secondary schools in the northwest of Ireland … challenging [designers] to create fashion outfits recycled from everyday junk and discarded waste. When 200 entrants turned up in City Hall in Derry for the first competition, it was clear that there was real enthusiasm for the idea. JK_EPK_22.pdf (dropbox.com)

Since the beginning of the movement over 15,000 recycled Kouture designs have been created using 40,000 kg of waste. 

Designs:

• ‘It’s All About The Package’ by Londiwe Ndlovu of Our Lady’s Bower Secondary School, Co. Westmeath.
• ‘The New Different’ by Georgie Barry, Leona Purcell and Ally Griffin of Coláiste Nano Nagle, Co. Limerick.
• ‘Steam Punk’ by Angel Agheria, Sam Walsh and Edward Mullaly of De La Salle College, Waterford.
• ‘Iconoclastic Fantastic’ by Alicia Rostermundt of Coláiste Bríde, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.

Designer: Unthink

Release date: May 4, 2023

EUROPA 2023: PEACE – The Highest Value of Humanity
Topics: Europa | peace

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, 2 sheets of 8
lithography 

Designers Peace knot: Linda Bos / Runa Egilsdottir, Esch-sur-Alzette 
Designer: Ailbhe Phelan

Release date: May 9, 2023

September

Centenary of the Admittance of the Irish Free State into the League of Nations
Topics: Irish history | history 

1 stamp

Release date: September 7, 2023

Cancer Awareness: Research and Care
Topics: health 

2 stamps

Release date: September 21, 2023

October

50th Anniversary of the Opening of Sydney Opera House
Topics: architecture | history | culture

1 stamp

Release date: October 19, 2023

November 

Christmas

5 stamps

Release date: November 5, 2023

Bicentenary of the Death of James Gandon

2 stamps

Release date: November 9, 2023

To Be Announced

Tenth Definitive Stamp Series ‘Art on a Stamp‘ Phase II 12

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