20 May 2013
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UNESCO City of Literature stamp from An Post, Ireland
Ireland has issued a City of Literature stamp which features an entire short story on the face of the stamp. ...
The standard-sized 60c stamp has an entire 170-word story, written by Eoin Moore, who was aged seventeen at the time he wrote the tale as part of a creative writing programme for young people. The issue of this stamp celebrates Dublin's designation as a permanent UNSECO City of Literature.
The short story reads as follows:
The thick clouds cover up the moonlight, but the city’s lights provide worthwhile illumination – above them all, the beacon burns bright atop the monolithic podium, signalling to wayfaring voyages the ancient Viking settlement.
Now, where Norsemen once stood, I look back, along the quays, streets and alleys, to where the inhabitants live their lives: eating, speaking, and breathing their city into existence.
It gives me cause to wonder, as I stroll aimlessly along the cobbled paths, about those who have traversed them before me, by carriage or before there were even cobbles to walk upon. I feel their lives and mine are somehow connected, that we all were at one point a part of this city, living pieces of its grand, striking framework.
Every High King and scholar, every playwright and poet, every politician and every rebel, every merchant, student, and busker who ever set foot in the city holds or held onto a chunk of this city’s soul; every one of them stepped to the city’s heartbeat. I listen to the streets at night and I can feel the city’s lifeblood pumping through me; I can feel myself flowing through it. All of us who travel those arteries step on the words, actions, and lives of those who travelled them before us. The city embodies the people, and the people embody the city.
To buy the stamp, visit the An Post website.
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