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List of people on stamps of Ireland


This is a list of people on stamps of Ireland, including the years when they appeared on a stamp.

Because no postage stamps had been designed, the first Irish stamps issued were the then-current British definitive postage stamps bearing a portrait of George V that were overprinted Rialtas Sealadaċ na hÉireann 1922 (Provisional Government of Ireland 1922) and issued on 17 February 1922. The overprint was later changed to Saorstát Éireann 1922 (Irish Free State 1922).

The Irish Free State issued the first commemorative stamps depicting a person on 22 June 1929 when Oifig an Phoist, the Irish Post Office, a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, issued a set of three stamps showing Daniel O'Connell. Since 1929 O'Connell is one of a small number of people shown in two issues, including Wolfe Tone and Arthur Guinness. The 2009 Guinness issue included postmarks with his trade mark signature, a first in philately.

The Department of Posts and Telegraphs and, after 1984, An Post, designed stamps showing statesmen, religious, literary and cultural figures, athletes, etc. Until the mid-1990s it was usual policy not to issue stamps showing living persons, the only exceptions being Douglas Hyde (stamp 1943, d. 1949, illustrated below) and Louis le Brocquy (stamp 1977, still alive in 2007, illustrated below), but this policy has been put aside and there have recently been several issues showing living persons. For the millennium, 30 millennium stamps were issued showing living Irish sportsmen.

1996 Centenary of Irish Cinema, 4 stamp set featuring 12 Irish actors in 4 Irish films:


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