New stamp inspired by Shane

An Post has unveiled four special stamps to honour, Shane MacGowan, Séamus Begley, Christy Dignam and Sinéad O’Connor, all of whom died in 2023.

Entitled ‘Iconic Irish Voices’, the four-stamp set marks their passing and their contributions to Irish life and music. The stamp set includes two ‘N’ National rate stamps showing striking portrait photographs of Séamus Begley and Christy Dignam, together with images of Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor on two ‘W’ stamps for posting worldwide.

The stamps are now available online at anpost.com/IrishVoices and in selected Post Offices – including Nenagh, where Shane MacGowan spent many summers with his extended family. Each stamp is available in a sheet of four (€5.60 for national, €8.80 for international), as well as on a limited edition First Day Cover envelope (€8.70), featuring an emotive image of a lone microphone stand cast in the spotlight.

The simple, unadorned black and white portrait stamps were designed by Shaughn McGrath of Shaughn McGrath Creative and highlight the artists’ humanity, strength and vulnerability. Each image highlight both the artist’s eyes, looking boldly back at us, and their hands, which they used to inscribe and perform.

Victoria Mary Clarke, wife of Shane MacGowan said: “Shane would be exceptionally proud and delighted to be honoured with a stamp from An Post. He was a passionate

Irish man with a huge love for Ireland and its history and culture and he was very interested in the stamps and often spoke about how much he loved them. He saw the Irish postage stamps as symbolic of our freedom from Britain and our status as an independent republic, the fact that we could issue our own stamps without the head of the British monarch was very important to him. His family are all very grateful to An Post for this beautiful gesture.”