Europa Stamp 2008 Letter Writing

9 June 2008

When it comes to personal communication, a letter is the key. From what is most commonly a childs first letter, a letter to Santa, to a carefully worded letter of resignation, to love letters and thank you letters, the Irish are prolific communicators, with approximately 15% of all Irish mail being personal in nature.

On the new Europa stamps, Anna McHugh, Head of Corporate Communications at  An Post  said: "Even in the electronic age, letters remain a uniquely powerful way to send and receive messages containing personal opinions, experiences, memories and requests."

A literacy benefit of letter writing is that letter exchange is an every day task in writing, responding and learning and there has even been US based research examining the potential health benefits of expressive letter writing.

Europa stamps are special stamps issued every year by Euopean postal authorities to promote cooperation and to highlight public awareness of the culture, history and roots shared by Europe's population.Previous Europa stamp themes are diverse and have include the Centenary of the World Scout Movement, Poster Art, Nature Reserves and Parks and Famous Women.  The new stamps are in two denominations, 55c and 82c, covering domestic and international post.

Since 1993 Europa stamps have issued under the aegis of PostEurop, the Association of European Postal Operators, but the tradition of Europa stamps stretches back to 1956 and each participating country has issued it's own stamp, based on a shared theme since 1974.

The Europa Letter Writing stamp is available from the Philatelic Shop, GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin 1, (01-7057400) from selected post offices nationwide or visit www.irishstamps.ie