A new 60c Irish stamp was commissioned to commemorate UNESCO naming Dublin as a permanent city of literature in 2010.
On the stamp is an entire 224 word short story meant to “capture the essence” of Dublin, penned by Irish teenager Eoin Moore, who was 17 at the time he wrote it. Moore’s short story was chosen from a group of applicants through Dublin’s Fighting Words’ creative writing program.
The stamp was designed by the Stone Twins, Amsterdam-based Irish designers.
The official stamp was unveiled on Thursday May 16 at Roddy Doyle’s Fighting Words Centre, with Irish president Michael D. Higgins on hand at the unveiling. It is available for purchase at Irish main post offices, Dublin’s GPO and online.
Moore's short story reads: "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."
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