An Post to stamp out errors in stamps

An Post is to hold a strategic review of the way it designs stamps following a series of blunders and mistakes.

An Post is to hold a strategic review of the way it designs stamps following a series of blunders and mistakes.

Two high-profile members of the design committee who resigned in protest at recent errors will take part in the review to be chaired by An Post's chief executive, Mr Donal Curtin.

The blunders include the misplacement of the island of Cyprus in a stamp commemorating EU enlargement, mixing up the Latin names of a species of duck in a series of wildlife stamps and reproduction errors in an illustrated coffee-table book of Irish stamps.

Another stamp commemorating the Luas, which showed a wheelchair user being pushed on to a tram, was vetoed by Government Ministers who felt it could imply that disabled people would not be able to board the tram without assistance.

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Two An Post members of the stamp design committee have resigned and been relocated to other areas of the company since the mistakes occurred.

Separately, Dr Patricia Donlon, former director of the National Library, and Mr Ciarán MacGonigal, an arts consultant, resigned from An Post's stamp design committee in protest over mistakes.

In a statement, Mr Curtin regretted the decision of Dr Donlon and Mr MacGonigal to resign, but respected their reasons for doing so. He said he was "disturbed" and "disappointed" at errors in the stamps issued earlier this year.

A spokesman for An Post, while conceding a number of errors had been made in recent months, insisted there was no mistake over the placement of Cyprus in the EU enlargement stamp. He said the map was merely distorted to fit into a small space.

All 3,000 copies of a book of Irish wild flower stamps, due to be published earlier this year, were pulped at an overall cost of anything between €40,000 and €50,000. It is due to be reprinted and published later this year.

Carl O'Brien

Carl O'Brien

Carl O'Brien is Education Editor of The Irish Times. He was previously chief reporter and social affairs correspondent