27 March 2020
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Five ‘Pioneering Irish women’ are celebrated in a set of colourful new stamps issued by An Post to coincide with last month’s International Women’s Day.
The stamps, designed by Oonagh Young, feature Irish women who achieved international recognition in Fashion, Film, Aviation, Athletics and Art:
- Carmel Snow, Editor-in-Chief of the Harper’s Bazaar magazine from 1934 to 1958
- Maureen O’Hara, a renowned Hollywood film actress and recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 2014
- Lillian Bland, the first woman in the world to design, build and fly an aeroplane having built the Mayfly in 1910, and successfully completed her first flight that same year.
Maeve Kyle, was the first woman to represent Ireland at the Olympics in 1956, and also Ireland’s first triple Olympian and Sarah Purser, portraitist and stained glass artist was the first female member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1924.
Debbie Byrne, Managing Director of An Post Retail said:
‘Some of these women are practically unknown, their names strangely absent from the history books and rolls of honour.
'To mark International Women’s Day 2020, An Post is proud to shine a light on these women’s remarkable achievements so that men and women alike can be inspired by their courage and determination. These are the perfect stamps to post to the women we know who inspire, challenge and sustain us, and let them know we’re thinking of them.’