Those green postboxes

If you've ever been to Ireland then you've surely seen the green mail boxes. Those big iron drums that look like they'd last a thousand years. And, maybe you've also seen those interesting little built-into-stone-wall mailboxes. I remember when I first came here I was reluctant to put anything into one of those because I was sure they'd been abandoned years ago. Apparently not, however.


Recently Frank McNally of the Irish Times provided a bit of background on the color of the mailboxes, or should I say postboxes, and the symbols you can see on many of them. Now I'd lived here a long time before I even bothered to note anything other than the color, but as McNally points out you can still see reminders of Ireland's presence in the British Empire if you look closely at the postboxes.

At the time Ireland declared itself a Republic and left the Commonwealth (the Empire's descendant) 60 years ago all the postboxes were given a coat (or two, probably) of green paint to cover over the British red. And a campaign to remove "the insignia of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and King George V" from the postboxes was undertaken.

However, the effort to remove the Crown's symbols was soon abandoned, which is why so many of the old postboxes still have the "attractive monograms of VR and ER and GRV," although I'm not sure I've ever seen a GRV. {VR stands for Victoria Regina and ER for - wait for it - Edward Rex, Victoria's son King Edward VII. I bet You were expecting Elizabeth. GRV is for George Rex - George V.}

If you look closely at the post box above you can see the E surrounding the R and the little VII inside, indicating that this postbox was produced during the reign of Edward VII.

The wall-mounted postboxes have simple initials and not "attractive monograms", but still the V R separated by a crown is easily seen on those wall postboxes. And, of course, today's postboxes have no regal symbols, which is as it should be seeing as this is a republic.