Traditional St. Patrick’s Day Stamp for 2006

16 February 2006

From the golden canopy to the burning bush, the Croagh Patrick sky to the scene from Purgatory, Keating paints a striking image of St. Patrick that befits what is now a global occasion. The St. Patrick’s Day stamp is also available on a First Day Cover at main Post Offices, the GPO, Dublin and online at www.irishstamps.ie.

Sending a St Patrick’s Day greeting has become popular with people of all nationalities, and is a great way to keep in touch or renew contacts with friends in foreign parts. A selection of colourful postage-paid greetings cards and postcards will be available at all Post Offices from February 20th. The latest dates for posting St. Patrick’s Day cards this year are 13th March for Europe and 10th March for the rest of the world. 25c from each card sold will go to the Irish Hospice Foundation.

Seán Keating (1889-1977) was a romantic-realist painter who painted iconic images of the insurrectionary period and the early industrialisation of Ireland. For inspiration he spent part of each year on the Aran Islands and his many portraits of island people depicted them as rugged heroic figures, much as he depicted St. Patrick in St. Patrick Lights the Paschal Fire at Slane.

He also spent time at William Orpen's London studio. In 1916 he returned to Ireland where he documented the War of Independence and the subsequent civil war. He was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1923 and in 1939 was commissioned to paint a mural for the Irish pavilion at the New York World Fair. He was President of the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1949 to 1962 and showed at the annual show every year for 61 years from 1914.

Contact the Press Office for further information.