This box is in Crosshaven. It is on private property at the front of a house that appears to be using it as a letter box, for receiving mail. We spotted it last Monday. It does not appear to be part of the An Post system and so does not pose a question as to why a King who served from 1936 to 1952 might have been recognised on an Irish postbox but it does remind me that I have yet to figure out why Queen Elizabeth II, who succeeded George VI, her father, in 1952, reigns in Shanagarry in East Cork. I was struck by the font of ‘G R’ which appears more casual than the ‘V R’, ‘ E R’ and ‘G R’ that are more regularly seen on green postboxes. The web reveals that the each monarch noted on postboxes had a different cypher (crown) and font. If I was to select one that I would like to go for a pint with, based solely on their font, George VI would be top of the list. That evening on Boards.ie, I was reading of the difficulty in spotting green postboxes in rural areas with which one might not be familiar. There was a comment that in Europe, postboxes are yellow for visibility. Their colour is not a statement of nationalism, as might be the case with red and green. Crosshaven appears to be moving up the rankings of cool European places. |