1.1 million “Shut Sellafield” Cards for the UK

24 April 2002

Approximately 1.1 million postcards will be despatched tonight (Wednesday, April 24) to three addresses in the UK as the “Shut Sellafield” campaign comes to a climax.

The powerful “mail your protest” movement of the past four weeks will end with the delivery of the cards to Prince Charles, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and the head of British Nuclear Fuels.

A final tally at the Dublin Mails Centres of An Post has confirmed that just over 1.1 million postcards are now on hands and will be delivered to the UK dignitaries on the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion.

The “Shut Sellafield” campaign was led by Ali Hewson and involved the delivery by An Post of a free card to 1.3 million households and the sale and processing of others.

Backed by widespread publicity and advertising the campaign has been a huge success. The posting is one of the largest ever handled by Letter Post, the mails division of An Post.

“As the national postal authority An Post is delighted to have been able to serve the wishes of the Irish people in making clear their concerns about the dangers presented to public safety by the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant “, said Liam Sheehan, General Manager of Letter Post Sales & Marketing.

“Our final tallies indicate that on Thursday we will be despatching in excess of 1.1 million postcards to the three addresses in the UK. This figure is a major endorsement of the effectiveness of the post as a significant campaign vehicle”, he added.