Stamp collecting has never featured highly on my list of hobbies. Until last year that is. I was a tad excited when a dear friend purchased me one of the special Seamus Heaney collectors stamps and then again when the WB Yeats stamp came out to celebrate his 150th anniversary I found myself at the GPO in Dublin purchasing a number of the said stamps for myself and friends. Now there is another to add to my special collection. That of our very own Ronan McLaughlin.
The day really has arrived for all us Muffians to get excited about a stamp. We have our very own legend featured on a new collection from An Post.
An Post, which has been backing a range of cycling activities for many years in Ireland, has created and launched four new 72c postage stamps to celebrate the boom in Irish cycling.
The ‘Cycling in Ireland’ stamps are designed by Zinc Design.
They feature four different aspects of the sport in Ireland: commuting and safety, family and leisure, sportive and charity and high performance and competition.
The set of four are available in main post offices and on www.irishstamps.ie.
An Post said of its decision to launch the stamps: “The growing number of people in Ireland who view cycling as a life-long activity is reflected in the membership of Cycling Ireland shooting up from 6,000 members to 23,000 over the past five years.
“In fact membership is up a whopping 720 per cent in the past 10 years and 65 per cent of those who have joined up are leisure or non-competitive cyclists, with women making up about 20 per cent of total membership.
“At elite level, Ireland is well represented in recent years, with Irish riders such as Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche, Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen, Caroline Ryan, Olivia Dillon and Lydia Boylan all racing for Ireland on a world stage.
“Their performances are reviving a great history which reached its peak in the glory days of Irish Cycling during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, when Stephen and Laurence Roche, Sean Kelly, Shay Elliott and Martin Early were all heroes and household names”
These will be great collectors’ items and they look very, very cool indeed so get them while you can people!
Ronan we promise not to ‘lick’ you too much but to keep you safe in our very own private collections. Priced at just 72c surely we can purchase a few!! Now to see what stamp the wedding invites showcase!! Just saying like!!!!
GMcC