Volume 3, NUmber 5

Irish Philatelic Newsletter

Volume 3, Number 5                                                                                                                                         May, 2001

A periodic publication for the members of the Éire Philatelic Association, the Irish Airmail Society, the Irish Philatelic Circle and the Forschungs-und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.V. The newsletter will be e-mailed to all interested members.

Published and edited by Michael Connolly
 
No Mat – No Mail – It’s Mad!
Michael Connolly

As reported in the Irish press:

“As instructed by the Minister for Public Enterprise and the interdepartmental committee managing the current Foot and Mouth crisis, An Post will not be making postal deliveries to landowners or farms which have not put in place the prescribed disinfectant procedures. Neither will An Post employees enter into restricted areas. 

Individuals or farmers, who have not put in place the disinfectant mats or have not installed a farm-gate post box or a receptacle which can receive mail, can avail of special arrangements to collect their mail at their local delivery office.

Under these arrangements, which are now in effect, mail will be retained at the local delivery office for two weeks, during which time it may be collected. If the mail remains uncollected at the end of the two week period, it will be returned, where possible, to the sender as per normal procedures.”

Lower Baggot Street P O
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ireland.com

Today (25 April 2001), I saw a notice at Lower Baggot Street P. O. (that’s the one opposite Bank of Ireland Head Office) noting that the office will close temporarily from 30 April 2001. This is because the existing postmistress retires on that day (as the lease is up on the premises). The notice says the closure is temporary pending the
appointment of a new postmaster and the securing of a suitable office. Given that Upper Baggot Street and Merrion Row P. O. are close by (and Cardiff Lane is somewhat close), I would not be surprised if this office never re-opens.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

Éire Frama Postage Labels
Ricardo Lapa
ricardolapa@yahoo.com

I am a philatelist from Portugal and a specialized collector of worldwide postage labels .

For some time now , I have been looking for some information about the postage labels in Éire, but so far I have not gotten much information about this .

Some time ago, I contacted An Post Philatelic Service to order some Frama postage labels (from the issue Tara Brooch) and to ask them what is the term for “postage label” in the Irish language.  Unfortunately, they informed me that the Frama postage labels are not available from the Philatelic Service and they did not give me the information about the term “postage label” in the Irish language.  I had written them again (to ask for the information about the term ), but they did not answer me .

So I am sending you this e-mail to ask if you could tell me what is the term for “postage label” in the Irish language.
I give you my thanks already .

As I said before, I am also looking for a set of the Tara Brooch Frama issue (with the values of 28/32/44/52 ) .

Do you know some collector who would be interested in stamps from Portugal in exchange for this set?  I can offer mint recent issues from Portugal, that you can see in the Portuguese Post website at http://www.ctt.pt

I can exchange in a face value for face value or unit for unit exchange basis, as it will be better for anyone interested .
I would like to call your attention to a Portuguese set that can be very interesting for the Irish philatelists . It is a set issued in 1998 regarding the Tall Ships Race, where there is a stamp with the picture of the Irish boat Asgard II.

Still about the Frama postage labels, I know that there are Frama machines in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Bray and Kilkenny, so it should be difficult to build a postage label set .

With best regards

Ricardo

IMP Notes 

IMP NEWS – IMP 27 from DMC
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ireland.com

On Wednesday, 2 May 2001, I saw a new IMP slogan from the DMC, machines 1 and 2, worded GLOBAL/WINDOWS & DOORS / 1800 31 31 32. I have numbered this IMP 27. This new slogan has been seen used on 1 May 2001 on DMC 1 and DMC 2. I have seen no slogans at all from DMC 3 and DMC 4 for that day. I can report that DMC 1 and DMC 2 are now showing the printed time again (on and from 1 May 2001). The time had been omitted from the dater since sometime around July/August 2000 if I recall correctly.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

IMP 28 from PMC
Maurice Barrett
maurice.barrett@ireland.com

I have just seen a new slogan, dated 2 May 2001, from PMC machine 1. It is worded “AXA and You. / Perfect / Together.” with the AXA / INSURANCE logo, all inside a box. The examples that I have seen are all from PMC machine 1 and are dated 2 May 2001. I have numbered this slogan IMP 28. 

PMC machine 1 was using IMP 26 (LO-CALL FOOT & MOUTH) on 1 May 2001. I have seen no PMC machine 2 slogans for either date.

Regards,

MAURICE BARRETT

Recent IMPish Behaviour
John Lennon 
johnglennon@eircom.net

It’s getting to the stage where you’ve got to pay close attention in class or you’ll get left behind quickly.

First of all I must correct a mistake. The Portlaoise machines are now numbered 3985 & 3986 and not as I gave on 22nd March.

Now on to the two new machines, D3 & D4.  D3 continued testing until 4th April and then ceased. Michael McNamara heard a new machine would go into operation when some agreement or other was sorted out. Whether it was this, D4 or the new FSM he reported the other day, I don’t know. In any case, it resumed on 17th April and
ceased again on 25th. It seems more than testing as it ran for up to 5hrs some days. On Sunday 22nd, the first time on a weekend, it ran from 11.00 to 13.00.

It was on this Sunday that D4 made its first appearance as spotted by Maurice & Michael. I’m surprised that they saw it as, having gone through sack loads of mail, I found only two examples. The earlier, 42411035(12.30), is close to Michael’s but the other is hours later – 43106393(15.45) and it was on a cover already tagged on D3 (32403607). That’s the first and last I’ve seen of the machine (up to 3rd May).

That was the easy bit!

On Monday, 30th April all four machines (D1, D2, P1 & P2) began with IMP26. At 22.30, D2 changed slogan to ‘Be Aware of Depression’ and continued normally until just before midnight when, all of a sudden, mail that had already been processed, mostly on D1 but a few on D2, was passed through, giving one slogan on top of another. There was only one tagcode on the back, so I thought D1 must have been having a problem earlier, but in fact the tagging was done by the first machine.  So why the second?.

Two covers are interesting. They are the only ones I have after 24.00 with only the Aware slogan. The first hadn’t been through another machine so was cancelled and tagged as normal by D2. The other had been tagged earlier by D1(13200091) but not cancelled, so D2 cancelled it (20203916) but didn’t tag it. This means we can now find covers where the numbers front and back don’t match. In this case, they are even different days.

Explanation? (Michael McNamara will soon correct me if I’m wrong):  When these machines came in, one of the advantages mentioned was that they could do primary and/or secondary sorting and I think they are now being used for the latter. Did the ‘Agreement’ come into effect on 1st May? The tagcodes on the back have an address associated with them so they can go through both stages with the one code. Why they need a second cancellation I don’t know. Surely the three OCR machines (3989,3990 & 3991) could do it. If the coding was machine-specific, D1 mail couldn’t be sorted by D2. Over 50% of the mail I have since 1st May is double cancelled, which doesn’t help in sorting out the other goings-on which I’ll come to now.

When both DMC machines started as usual at 1400, they had a new slogan, IMP27, and showed the time again. At about 17.45, IMP26 made a brief appearance and again around 20.00 and 02.00(on 2nd, its last appearance). D2 was similar, with IMP26 appearing briefly at around 14.50, 20.35 & 00.30.  This was another feature mentioned as possible with these machines, a changeability of slogan during a run so different areas could be targetted with local slogans. Strangely, the time dropped out for IMP26.  The 2nd May began at 1400hrs with yet another new slogan, IMP28, on D2 but it only lasted a minute before IMP27 took over. Until 19.00, IMP28 flashed in and out but it then became the dominant one. D1 was something similar with IMP28 seen a few times from 14.40 until the evening when it became about 50/50. The time is shown only with IMP27.

Meanwhile in Portlaoise, things are nearly as bad. On 1st May, it was IMP26 only; on 2nd, IMP28 only and, on 3rd, IMP27 only. However, see below. Double cancellation has also caught on here, but slightly earlier than in DMC. PMC does it from 1900hrs whereas DMC is after 21.30hrs.

When there are two slogans, one on the other, it isn’t always possible to tell which goes with which date and time.

With all this flicking backwards and forwards from one slogan to another, it’s inevitable hybrids will occur. So far I’ve seen three types. The first is IMP26 on upper half and IMP27 below on D1 on 1st (14500019)  The second is IMP27 on top and IMP28 below on D1,D2,P1 & P2 The third has IMP28 above and IMP27 below on D2.

The existence of hybrids in PMC suggests possible changes of slogan during a run.

With the multiple cancellations, there are lots of combinations to be found: D1 on D2, D2 on D1, D1 on D1, D2 on D2, P1 on P1, P2 on P2, P2 on P1, P1 on P2, D1 on P1, D1 on P2, D2 on . . . need I go on? The scarce ones will be PMC on DMC (I haven’t found any yet). Then there are the several treblers, D1 on D1 on D2, D2 – endless! Just wait until D3 & D4 get into it!.

I’m a bit apprehensive about what next week’s bins might produce.

John Lennon

Downpatrick TPO
John Gilpin 
john.gilpin@btinternet.com

Re the Irish TPO sign featured in the Irish Philatelic Newsletter –

Web surfers might be interested to know that they can view an illustration of the preserved TPO carriage at Downpatrick at http://members.nbci.com/vctdata/B/3350.HTM

John Gilpin
Belfast

John Broderick R.I.P.
Dennis Ahern 
ahern@world.std.com

I knew John from Irish genealogy, but he drew me into his philatelic passion as well when he invited The Irish Ancestral Research Association to have a table at the stamp show in Boxborough last year. For those of you who would like to share remembrances of John with his family, see http://www.tiara.ie/guestbook/guestbook.html

FAI – Sad News
Klaus Stange
StangeFAI@aol.com

Sad news has to be reported: The editor of our magazine DIE HARFE, Michael Rupp, has passed away on 29 April 2001 in his home without any prior symptoms, of a heart stroke. He was in his 58th year.

Michael was our editor since 1989 and published 47 issues of DIE HARFE. He had put together some Gold exhibits several years ago. In the eighties he wrote to each and every post office in Ireland to receive handstamp strikes from all of them. In the meantime, many of you will have seen those letters sent to “Silva Torborg, Poste Restante,” or similar, being returned to the sender with a whole lot of postmarks. In recent years, Michael tried to get together photos of all post offices in Ireland.  He had already published some 650 on a CD.  Many of these may be viewed on his homepage: Irische Postämter Michael Rupp .

Michael will be missed by his family, friends and the philatelic community worldwide. We will keep him and his work for the Irish philately in our memory.

Klaus Stange

Dublin Post Office Services at Risk 
Michael Connolly

As reported by Arthur Beesley in the Irish Times on March 19, 2001:

Post office services in Dublin are facing crisis due to rising rents and staff shortages, it has emerged.

An Post this weekend confirmed that three post offices near  the city centre have closed temporarily and another six face closure soon. Officials directly employed by the State company were temporarily working at another three offices to avoid closure, it added.

Of the company’s entire network of 1,911, 50 post masters had resigned in the past six months.

An Post said high-volume urban post offices were now at risk in a crisis previously assumed to be confined to rural post offices.

The Minister for Public Enterprise MS O’Rourke is assessing a study by an industrial relations specialist, Mr. Phil Flynn, which is believed to state that the services cannot survive without a subsidy.

 It is understood his report says An Post’s rural network may  require £70 million (euro88.9 million) in subsidies by 2005 if costs and revenues remained static. Rising from £10 million in 2001 to £25 million in 2005, such figures are seen as worst-case scenario requirements.

The Department of Finance has said a £70 million subsidy by 2005 would cause it “concern”. The company said post masters had resigned, retired or died. An Post had advertised vacancies many times, but received few responses.

This lack of interest was attributed to high rents and increasing wage demands. Many post masters are believed to earn as little as £4,000.

Their salaries were volume-based, but economies of scale applied at larger outlets meant the average value per
transaction diminished as their number rose.

Such post offices were operated on a franchise basis and workers at the outlets were normally employed by the post master. But rising wage demands meant vacancies were increasingly difficult to fill.

The company said post offices at Newtown Park Avenue at Blackrock, Co Dublin, and at Clontarf Road and Terenure Village were closed temporarily.

Post offices at risk of closure were at Cabinteely, the Upper Drumcondra Road, Villa Park near the Navan Road, Ballybrack, Lower Baggott Street and Finglas Main Street.

It said An Post officials were manning the post offices at Clondalkin village, Donaghmede and Blanchardstown village.

STAMPANIA 2001
Eoin F. Boyle
sales@irelandstamps.com

This is the fourth one of these oddly named shows.  The first took place in the Riverside Centre on the 12/13th April 1997.  The second show was held in the same venue on the 17/18th April 1999.  The third one took place on the 16th of April 2000 in Jury’s Hotel, Ballsbridge.  There was an overprint souvenir for each of the shows on various An Post miniature sheets (scans available).

This years show is on the 8th of April in Jury’s Hotel, Ballsbridge in the Elm & Oak Suite and runs from 11am to 5pm.  There is a limited edition souvenir and all are welcome.

Best wishes,

Eoin F. Boyle

Zeppelin Cover Survey
Bill Murphy
WJM5813@aol.com

I am conducting a survey of the Irish Zeppelin covers carried on the first 1932 flight to South America to determine how many were actually sent. There have be several estimates made of the number sent.  Usually it is quite small.  I believe that there were at least 20 sent and maybe 30 or more.

I ask that anyone having a cover sent on this first 1932 flight contact me and send information about the cover you have.  If you could send a photocopy, that would be even better. 

Anyone replying to this request with information will receive a complete listing of the covers found.  Thank you very much.

Bill Murphy
5813 Castano
Drive, San Jose, CA 95129, USA

Spring Meeting of the CJB Chapter.
Dave Brennan
BRENNAN704@aol.com

The Commodore John Barry chapter of the Éire Philatelic Association will be meeting at NOJEX on Saturday, May 26th at 2 P.M.  The topic of discussion will be “Collecting Irish booklets and panes”.  If you happen to be in the New York-New Jersey area that weekend, feel free to join us.

Regards,

Dave

Irish Official Envelopes
Ray Murphy
rayhmurphy@prodigy.net

I would be interested in contacting fellow collectors with a common interest in Irish Official envelopes and their markings. 
Irish Booklets
Barney Clancy
BCLANZ@aol.com

Needed for an eventual display:  Empty booklets, the advertising interleaves and the wrappers that packaged
groups of booklets.  Please contact me with details and price.

All the best,

Barney Clancy
PO Box 3036,
Seminole, FL 33775

 Auction Action 

Éire Philatelic Association 
Joe Foley 
JFoley4197@aol.com

PRICES REALIZED – AUCTION #124                               (Lots not listed were not sold) 
1 
$85.00
2
4.25
3
3.25
4
12.00
5
160.00
6
80.00 
9
575.00 
11
19.00
14
8.00
15
10.00
26
6.50
27
1.75 
28
1.25
29
1.25
35
1.25
39
1.75
40
5.50
41
3.25 
42
11.00
43
3.75
44
11.00
46
11.00
47
1.50
48
3.00 
49
3.00
50
5.50
53
1.00
55
3.25
56
2.75
58
1.00 
59
5.50
60
1.25
61
1.00
62
3.00
63
6.50
64
2.00 
68
2.75
69
3.25
70 
8.00
71
7.50
72
8.00
73
5.50
74
47.50
75
5.50
76
8.00
77
16.00
79
3.25 
80
1.25 
81
5.50
82
1.00
83
1.75
85
2.75
86
12.00
87
5.50
88
5.50
89
3.25
90
1.00
91
4.25
93
27.50
94
75.00 
97
17.00
98
8.00
108
8.50
112
3.50
117
5.50
119
3.25
120
7.00
143
4.25
144
1.25
145
1.25
146
4.25
150
3.25 
151
3.25
152
13.00
153
13.00
154
6.50
156
5.50
159
4.25
160
4.25
161
8.00
162
8.88
163
5.50
164
7.00
165
21.00
166
11.00
167
11.00
168
7.50
184
40.00
185
27.50
186
8.00
187
11.00
188
2.75
189
6.50
193
3.25
195
11.00
200
3.25 
204
3.25
209
7.50
210
6.50
211
1.00
212
1.00
213
1.00
214
1.00
215
7.50
216
1.00
219
1.75
243
6.00
247
8.50
258A
6.00
263
1.00
273
2.25
274
1.75
277
2..75
278
2.50
279
2.00
280
2.75
283
2.75
284
3.00
285
3.00
286
3.00
287
2..75
288
2.50
289
3.00
290
2.75
291
2.00
292
2.25
293
3.25
294
3.25
296
5.00
298
2.50
301
2.75
309
2.25
311
1.25
315
1.75
316
1.75
317
1.75
318
1.25
319
1.25
320
1.75
321
1.00
322
1.00
323
1.00
324
1.00
325
1.25
328
1.75
329
1.75
330
1.50
331
2.25
332
2.25
333
1.50
334
1.50
335
1.00
336
1.00
337
1.00
338
5.50
339
2.75
340
5.50
341
5.50
342
5.50
346
8.00
Note: some very low bids were not considered. 
Editorial statement:

In today’s cyber-age, its only fitting that we interact in cyberspace. I can’t see any reason why the members of our societies should not join in. More and more of our members are now accessing e-mail and the internet.

To subscribe to the Newsletter, send a request by e-mail to webmaster.  To remove yourself from receiving the Newsletter, send your request to the same e-mail address. 

Viewing of the newsletter is available online from the ÉPA web page. 

Past issues are archived and are available for online retrieval, again from the ÉPA web page.  E-mail requests for back issues are also accepted.

Members are encouraged to contribute articles or bits of news to the newsletter.  I believe that learned treatises belong in our society journals, where they can be shared with all members. I don’t feel that a newsletter should ever attempt to be a replacement for our journals.

“Newsy” bits would certainly interest me personally and would seem to be ideal for a newsletter such as this.

Requests for information and help with puzzling items can be submitted and, hopefully, some reader will have an answer.

Brief articles or informational pieces would also be welcome.

If you have e-mail access, you can send articles by e-mail to webmaster.

For those in the U.S.A., libraries providing access and free e-mail sites are proliferating.  Members could access the Web even without home or office access to cyberspace.

Input from members can even come via our beloved snail-mail.

Submitters should understand that any material published in the newsletter would, automatically, become available for publication in our journals.