Ireland
Fossils and reconstruction of prehistoric animals, Charles Darwin on stamps and postmarks of Ireland
Contents
Ireland is an
island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain
to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's
Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the
third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland
(officially named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and
Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, in the northeast
of the island. In 2011 the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million,
ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great
Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland and
just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
With the Acts of Union in
1801, Ireland became a part of the United
Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed
by the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which
became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern
Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom.
[R1]
Ireland is famous by big amount of fossils of Ice-Age animals, expecially
Megaloceros giganteus,
also called Irish Elk or Irish Great Deer.
However, due to the fact that Ireland was underwater for most of the period that dinosaurs roamed the earth,
it is very little chance that dinosaur fossils would ever be found on the Island.
Only two dinosaur fossil bones have been found in Ireland, both from the same location on the Country Antrim coast. The
bones are from the hind legs of two animals that lived around 200 million years ago: a herbivore called Scelidosaurus
and a carnivorous Megalosaurus, as reported in November 2020 by paleontologists from the Ulster Museum
in Belfast and published in major Irish newspapers.
It is suggested that that dinosaurs remains were perhaps swept out to sea, before settling in the Jurassic seabed.
Hopefully we will see some dinosaur stamps of Irealnd in the feature.
The postage stamps of Ireland are issued by
the postal operator of the independent Irish state. Ireland was part of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when the world's first
postage stamps were issued in 1840. Oifig an Phoist, the Irish Post
Office, was the section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs which
issued all Irish stamps up to 1984. After the division of the
Department of Posts and Telegraphs into two semi-state organisations in
1984 An Post took over the responsibility for all Irish postal services
including the issuing of postage stamps.
[R2]
Official stamps of Ireland related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals, fossils, Charles Darwin
Commemorative postmarks
of Ireland related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals
11.10.1999 "Extinct Irish Animals" [FDC] |
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Other commemorative
postmarks of Ireland to consider
20.09.2009 "Charles Darwin" [FDC] |
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References:
- [R1] Ireland:
Wikipedia,
WikiTravel,
FlagCounter.
- [R2] Postal History and Philately of Ireland:
Ireland,
Links to official website of Post Authority, stamp catalog and list of new stamps of Ireland are here