The postal service as we know it to-day started way back in the 16th Century when Queen Elizabeth I decided to organise a regular service to control and supervise her armies in Ireland.

Some time after that, Nicholas Fitzsymon, alderman and member of an influential Dublin family, was chosen as the first official postmaster of Dublin City.

Originally, letters were both collected and delivered by post boys. Then came the horse-drawn mail coach service and with the advent of the railway and the mail train a more efficient service came about.

The letter office where one could post or receive letters was originally situated in Castle Street, Dublin. From there it moved to High Street, then on to Fishamble Street and then to various locations around the city before finally settling in O’Connell Street, then known as Sackville Street. It opened for business on 6th January 1818, by which time it was known as the General Post Office.

The building was designed by the eminent architect Francis Johnston. The three statues in pride of place on top of the façade are by the sculptor Edward Smyth.

At one side there is Mercury, the messenger of the gods, on the other side Fidelity, who holds a key, and in the centre is Hibernia holding a spear and harp. The GPO was the first in Ireland designed specifically as a post office.

Due to an enormous increase in mail, there was an unwelcome suggestion that in order to speed things up people should cut a slit in their fine hall doors to receive their post. However, they soon became accustomed to the idea and the ‘slit’ evolved into the familiar letter box as we know it to-day.

The first postage stamp was an historic innovation when it was introduced. This stamp was the famous ‘Penny Black’ and bore the profile of the young 18 year old Queen Victoria.

At that time, stamps were printed in sheets and had to be cut with scissors. A Dublin man, Henry Archer, invented a machine for perforating the paper.

The system used for the collection of letters greatly improved with the installation of the pillar box. These boxes were already in use in France, Germany and Belgium, but it was Anthony Trollope, the novelist and sometime postal advisor, who introduced them into the UK and Ireland.

The early Irish post boxes were of individual design but were eventually standardised. Both the pillar and wall mounted ones bore the royal insignia of their era: Queen Victoria 1874-1901 (one of which can be found opposite St Patrick’s church in Ringsend), Edward VII 1901-1910 (located on Sandymount Road) and George V 1910-1922 (on Westmoreland Street).

The boxes were originally painted royal red and with Irish independence in 1922 the colour was changed to emerald green. Post-independence boxes displayed the P&T (Posts and Telegraphs) symbol until the formation of the semi-state body ‘An Post’ in 1984.