post box

Freestanding round-plan cast-iron pillar post box with plinth base, installed c.1935. Raised insignia of P&T to front (east) elevation, moulded neck, dentillated frieze and domed cap. Maker’s mark to rear (west) of plinth base: ‘ST. JOHNS IRON WORKS/ENNISCORTHY’. Set into concrete paving of footpath.

This attractive piece of street furniture is an example of the high quality of mass-produced cast-iron work in the early years of the twentieth century. The insignia, representing the national Posts & Telegraphs service, dates the box to the early years of the Irish State and provides decorative as well as contextual interest. It continues to fulfill its function and is testament to the robust quality of manufacture, and is particularly notable as a rare example of an item such as this being manufactured in Ireland. A later example of the type, it is indicative of the continuity of design right through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, until the adoption of rectangular steel post boxes in more recent decades.