By my reckoning, it has been at least six years since the last post on this blog, and even longer since I wrote something. So it's time to ease back into it with a lovely specimen from further afield than the usual Cork and Dublin examples.
On a recent trip to Galway, I spotted this beauty embedded into the wall on University Road, right in front what is now known as the "University of Galway."
Of course, when it was established in 1845, it was founded as "Queen's College, Galway" (along with Cork and Belfast), named after the monarch whose cypher also adorns this post-box. It's an interesting specimen, since it also features a more modern An Post logo/sticker overlaid below; that's entirely in keeping with these post-boxes' changing history, and their status as a kind of palimpsest-like window onto the past.
Like the proverbial chicken-and-egg problem, I wonder which came first: the college or the post-box?
