National Stamp (Saorstát Éireann)

The establishment of Saorstát Éireann (the Irish Free State) occurred on December 6, 1922, exactly a year after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Besides being a special creation to signal this important happening, the approach taken to produce the stamp design consisted of a novel process. Working in cooperation with the ‘Business to Arts’ partnership, we invited professional artists to contribute artworks relating to the centenary.

The winning design by Brian Gallagher was unveiled on October 13, the issue date of the stamp.

The illustration features corncrakes emerging from a long meadow, symbolising the ideal of freedom and new beginnings. An old tower house with a frayed tricolour depicts the difficult, long road to some form of independence. A crack running down the tower house hints at signs of schism of the Civil War and alludes to the division between nationalism and unionism. The original black and white scraperboard artwork has two colours, green and orange, added digitally.

Product code 2212N