An Post has unveiled four special stamps to honour four Irish musicians who died in 2023,
Séamus Begley, Christy Dignam, Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor will all feature on the stamps which will be available from Thursday 12th September online at anpost.com/IrishVoices and in selected Post Offices nationwide.
Entitled ‘Iconic Irish Voices’, the four-stamp set of black and white portrait stamps were designed by Shaughn McGrath of Shaughn McGrath Creative.
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.
Speaking at a private stamp unveiling for the featured artists’ families, David McRedmond, CEO of An Post said, “It’s still hard to accept that Christy, Seamus, Sinead and Shane are no longer with us. Each of them shone brightly and bravely throughout their lives, bringing good times, inspiration and joy to millions upon millions of people. They were proud Irish artists whose work explored, often critically, our identity as a people. We are greatly honoured on behalf of the people of Ireland to release these special stamps as symbol of the nation’s respect and pride in their musical genius and their impact on the world.”
Kiera Dignam, daughter of Christy Dignam said, “Our family are deeply touched to have my Dad honoured in such a beautiful way by A Post. Knowing his humour, to be on a stamp is definitely something he would giggle about, it’s like he’s Irish Royalty!”
“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,” Victoria Mary Clarke, wife of Shane MacGowan said.
To celebrate the new stamps and as part of Culture Night 2024 on Friday 20th September , An Post, in collaboration with Music Network Ireland, invites the public to visit the historic GPO for a special instrumental performance of four world-famous songs, celebrating the work of Séamus Begley, Christy Dignam, Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor.
There will be four performances on the evening at: 6:30pm, 7pm, 7:30pm, 8pm. The event is free (no ticket required), wheelchair accessible and is a must-see for music lovers and fans of the featured artists, so greatly admired and missed by so many people in Ireland and across the world.
