New stamps celebrate Kavanagh and Quakers

21 October 2004

The 48c stamp commemorating Patrick Kavanagh is based on a photograph of the poet by Evelyn Hofer. Kavanagh was born in the townland of Muckler, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. His poems began to attract attention after the publication in 1936 of his fist volume entitled The Ploughman and other Poems.

In 1939 he moved to Dublin where he worked as a journalist in the Irish Press. In 1942 The Great Hunger appeared in the Horizon literary magazine. The Gardai seized all copies, on the order of the Minister of Justice, because the poem was alleged to be obscene. It is now seen as the highest point in Kavanagh's poetic development. He died of pneumonia on November 30, 1967.

Quakerism was founded in 17th century England by George Fox. In 1654 William Edmondson, an English settler at Lurgan, Co Armagh, formed the first Quaker group in Ireland.

The stamp, which was designed by Dublin illustrator Paul Raftery, covers airmail postage for a letter from Ireland to Britain. It shows a portrait of George Fox with an image of the Quaker Meeting House in Ballintore, Co Kildare in the background.

First Day Covers and stamp sheetlet for both issues are available at the Philatelic Bureau, GPO, Dublin Tel: (01) 7057400 and on-line at www.irishstamps.ie