Dublin postal districts have been used by Ireland's postal service, known as An Post, to sort mail in Dublin. The system is similar to that used in cities in Europe and North America until they adopted national postal code systems in the 1960s and 1970s. These were incorporated into a new national postcode system, known as Eircode, which was implemented in 2015.[1][2] Under the Eircode system, the city is covered by the original routing areas D01 to D24, along with A## and K## codes for locations elsewhere in County Dublin.[3]
History
The green Leeson Street nameplate predates postal districts. The newer blue Hatch Street nameplate indicates the district is Dublin 2.
The postal district system was introduced in 1917 by the British government, as a practical way to organise local postal distribution.[4] This followed the example of other cities, including London, first subdivided into ten districts in 1857,[5] and Liverpool, the first city in Britain or Ireland to have postcodes, from 1864. The letter "D" was assigned to designate Dublin[6] and was retained by the new Irish government.[5]
Dublin didn't start using postal district numbers until 1927[7]: 371 when the Department of Posts and Telegraphs initiated a scheme that requested senders to add a code to each address in Dublin City and suburbs. When mail was addressed in English senders were to add an appropriate postman's walk number but when addressed in Irish, different letters were used with the same walk numbers, such as Rathgar Road being D3 on mail addresses in English but S3 on Irish addressed mail.[8] This scheme was not popular and within a few years became defunct. In 1961, a new postal district numbers started and these numbers were added to street signs[5] prior to which street signs only displayed the street name in Irish and English.
The number of districts was increased as the city grew, and in the 1970s, large districts were subdivided. Dublin 5 was split, with the coastal part retaining the "5" and the inland part becoming Dublin 17. Dublin 8, Ballyfermot became Dublin 10, along with Palmerstown and Chapelizod. However, Dublin 10 was subsequently split again, with Palmerstown and Chapelizod forming Dublin 20.[9]
In 1985, Dublin 6 was divided, with some areas, such as Templeogue, Kimmage and Terenure becoming part of a new district in order to facilitate processing of mail by a new delivery office for those areas. Residents of some areas objected to the assignation of the next available number, "Dublin 26", for the new postal district, citing property devaluation: the higher numbered districts typically represented less affluent and less central areas.[10] An Post ultimately relented, and the western part of the district became known as Dublin 6W.[5][11]
Structure
Street sign in Dublin, displaying name of the street in Irish and English, with postal district number
Historically, the postal district appeared with one or two digits (or in the case of one district, a digit and a letter) at the end of addresses:
Sample Address, Sample Street, Dublin 8
Under the Eircode postcode system, the postal district number is still retained in Dublin addresses, even though this information is also contained in the "Locator code" portion of the Eircode postcodes, e.g.:
Sample Address, Sample Street, Dublin 8, D08 1X2Y
In most cases, odd numbers are used for addresses on the Northside of the River Liffey, while even numbers are on addresses on the Southside. Exceptions to this are the Phoenix Park (along with a small area between the Park and the River Liffey), and Chapelizod Village which, although on the Northside, are parts of the Dublin 8 and Dublin 20 postal districts respectively.[5]
Dublin 11 includes most of Ballymun west of Ballymun Road (Sillogue, Balcurris, Balbutcher, Poppintree, Sandyhill and Wadelai), Dubber Cross, Finglas (including Ballygall and Cappagh), most of Glasnevin (Cremore, Addison, Violet Hill, Finglas Road, Old Finglas Road and Glasnevin Cemetery), Kilshane Cross, The Ward and Coolquay.
These areas do not fall inside the historic Dublin postal districts and their postal routing keys came about through the new Eircode system. This is because many of these suburbs and towns fell outside the purview of Dublin city in the past. Today, they form part of "A" and "K" Dublin Eircode areas. There are 12 of these districts in total. Notable locales include Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire, Malahide, Swords, Lucan, Rush and Skerries. While a small part of Bray lies in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, for mailing purposes, the entirety of Bray is in County Wicklow's A98 routing area.
On 8 October 2013, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte announced a postcode system for the entire country.[17] This came into effect during 2015 and gave an individual post code to every address in Ireland.[2] The pre-existing Dublin district numbers are a component of the full postcode for relevant addresses, forming part of the routing code, the first three characters of the code. For example, a code for an address in Dublin 1 would start with D01, followed by four characters, hence Dublin D01 B2CD.[18]
Marketing
The districts are sometimes used in a manner similar to the sub-districts of the London postal district whereby they replace a placename. A property might be described as being "in D4", for example.[19] This public awareness of Dublin postal districts allows occasional use in marketing. Dublin n is usually abbreviated to Dn, with examples including the "D7 Restaurant", "Dtwo" nightclub, or "D4 Hotels".[20]
^"Dubliners go postal over the right address". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 19 July 2015. The new regime does not yet seem to spell the end for the postal district numbering system [..] drawn up under British rule in 1917
^ abcdef"Dublin's vanishing postal districts". Irish Times. 16 March 2015. The postal districts in Dublin date back to 1917, when they were also introduced in cross- channel cities. Postal districts had started in London in 1857 [..] Dublin didn't start using postal district numbers until 1961, as reflected in the old green street nameplates
^Moore, Robert (2011). ""If I Actually Talked Like That, I'd Pull a Gun on Myself": Accent, Avoidance, and Moral Panic in Irish English". Anthropological Quarterly. 84 (1): 41–64. doi:10.1353/anq.2011.0014. JSTOR41237479. S2CID1097733.
^Note: Most of the civil parish of Artaine – the townlands of Artaine South, Artaine West and Puckstown – lies within Dublin 9.
^"Frequently Asked Questions". eircode.ie. Eircode. Retrieved 12 April 2019. The existing established Dublin Postal Districts 1 to 24 and 6W are being retained in the Routing Key as D01 to D24
