Ambrand.com

When it comes to postal addresses Irish people seem to suffer from an extreme case of numerophobia, a fear of numbers. The ideal Irish house is a one-off rural dormer bungalow, with a token 3 metre tarred driveway, overt kerosene tank, and electic gates. The ideal Irish address is as short as possible; “John Smith, Townland, Town, County Cork”

In my youth - which was not that long ago - I earned some extra money as a postman. At this time of year, having taken it for granted like running water or electricity,  the public tend to briefly think of the postal system as they send Christmas cards. The classic advice to posters to make sure the destination address is correct and to include a return address in case it is not. But what about the other side of the postal journey? The receiver.

Housing estate and even street houses do not always display numbers, so if you have an envelope to deliver to number 14 you will have to search for any house that has a number displayed and then find another one near it to see which direction the numbers run in, and only then can you find number 14. In Australia many councils stencil spray paint house numbers onto the kerb, so that if a particular owner finds the idea of having a number on hisoak door repulsive it doesn’t matter.

and when you finally reach the door of number 14 you might find a buzzer for 4 apartments, naturally the labels will not given surnames as that would require too much effort, so you ring Apt 1-4 and there is no answer from any. So you toss a coin (twice) and put the “Sorry I missed you” delivery note into Apt 1’s slot.

Often occupiers will disregard numbers entirely. Housing estate houses in gentrified areas often disregard their actual number and adopt a name instead, such as “Maryville”, “Windrush”, “The Gables” and so on.

Housing estate residents often consider their estates so well known that they drop the Road name, so 14 Rath More, Smith Road, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch becomes 14 Rath More, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch. Bearing in mind that Ballybeg could have 25+ estates a delivery driver finding himself on Main Street has no idea where the “Rath More” estate is.

Sometimes upon arriving at a house you find there is not letterbox, or that it is tiny (do builders not follow construction guidelines?), some houses don’t even have doorbells.

Ah I have fond memories of my days delivering envelopes and packages, I remember one house that I held on a pedestal. It had a visible number on the pillar, a number above the letterbox itself, and even a plaque reading “J Smith”. I don’t know why Mr Smith found it necessary to put his name on the outside of his house, perhaps he was someone important, but it sure made my job easier.

An Post will never complain about these matters, because their advantage over private sector couriers is in their staff personal knowledge of lcoal areas. An Post will never voluntarily promote postcodes either for this reason.