PHILATELISTS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
One of the joys of stamp collecting is that it is a great way to get away from the stress and problems of daily life.
But it must have been even more of a blessing for the collectors of Northern Ireland, now seeing life returning to normal after more than 30 years of the Troubles. Not only could they retreat to their stamp corners and worry about se-tenants instead of sectarian divides, but the stamp clubs largely remained islands of non-sectarian coexistence.
Ray Morgan, a part-time stamp dealer and a prison officer in the troubled province, said its stamp clubs have remained as an oasis of reason and respect. "I see all the troubles in the streets. At the clubs I never see it at all." He noted that a general agreement at the stamp groups has been: "If you want to be a bigot, go out on the street … Catholics and Protestants seem to get along."
To make this fine objective easier, the topics of religion and politics have generally been banished at the meetings Morgan added that he feels the general higher education level of collectors and their quest for knowledge made them much less susceptible to bigotry.
Thus was answered one of the questions I had in late spring last year when I set off, along with wife and four Siberian huskies, in our camper van for a stamp and collectibles fair in Lisburn, a bustling small city some ten miles from Belfast. I had taken tables at the fair, for a small fee, as one part of a trip to see an old high school and university friend, take in the centennial edition of the North of Ireland Philatelic Society’s annual auction, and enjoy some good food and scenery.
The fair, in a church hall that had undergone a multimillion pound renovation a few years ago, was a pleasant and lively event. In fact I had visited it two and a half years earlier, and the atmosphere seemed even better than my pleasant recollections of it.
One of my main aims was to buy Scottish postcards to take back. A major postcard dealer at the fair had not brought his Scottish cards, but arranged for them to be delivered within an hour or two so I could look at them, and I was pleased to make a sizable purchase.
One reason that the event went smoothly and attracted a wide variety of well-informed and many-faceted collectors was that Morgan, an Englishman who came to the province as a British soldier and stayed when he married a local woman, has been organising the fair for 20 years. He has long been active in philately in the province and in fact helped form one of its stamp clubs, the Lagan Valley Philatelic Society, some 20 years ago to try to increase the activities available to collectors.
"Any fair run by Ray Morgan in Northern Ireland will be a well-run fair," was one comment made later in my trip by James O’Brien, a Dublin dealer in stamps, coins and postcards who has participated in the Lisburn events. He also highly praised the hall in Lisburn, by the way.
To be sure, organised philately is hardly a powerhouse in Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.6 million, as it has only four stamp clubs and one for postcard collectors, and no stamps shops and no commercial auctions.
The fact that stamp collectors might seem to be a bit thin on the ground in Northern Ireland can hardly be totally blamed on the Troubles, as I had assumed, however. It was pointed out to me that Belfast had a thriving stamp shop, with up to 12 employees, during most of the Troubles, including the most violent times. When it finally shut for the last time, it was down to the fact that business did not cover the ever-rising costs – hardly a phenomenon limited to Northern Ireland.
One veteran observer commented: For boys in Northern Ireland, it was "rugby, Scouts and collecting and that was it, that was life". To be sure, the problems that are dogging the social side of the hobby around the world – aging populations, alternatives such as computer games and the internet – are factors in the province too. Morgan says he will feel lucky if his fair and many others still exit in ten years, as he feels eBay and other computer-based outlets are attracting collectors to the detriment of social activities.
As a matter of fact, stamp opportunities in the more populous Republic of Ireland are not all that much more prolific. Dublin, a metropolis of about one million people but a booming national capital that seems far bigger, has one stamp shop, two good stamp and postcard stalls in markets and a semi-annual philatelic auction. Ireland does have a fair number of philatelic societies and fairs, with the national one, Stampa, being a well-organised three-day event in the autumn that I have attended several times and found to be excellent for meeting Irish collectors and examining a wide variety of material for sale.
After an enjoyable few days in Dublin, which included a whirlwind tour of stamp and postcard venues, we found ourselves driving our van into the lush and peaceful grounds of a school campus in Finaghy, a suburb of Belfast. We had spent the day enjoying the scenic delights of Northern Ireland, and I was about to take advantage of something else the once-troubled province now has to offer: a stamp auction.
Hunterhouse College, a preparatory school, is the attractive and comfortable venue the North of Ireland Philatelic Society has found for its meetings, and the draw this particular evening was the society’s centennial year auction. Philately is also a great way to meet people, and I had hardly stepped out of the van when I was recognised by someone from the Lisburn fair I had attended a few days earlier. The way to the club venue was quickly pointed out, and before I knew it I was purchasing a coffee from the vending machine and starting to view some of the 400-plus lots.
The North of Ireland society, the province’s oldest and largest stamp group, with some 100 members and small auctions at its monthly meetings, took steps ten years ago to help make up for the lack of a commercial auction. Its annual auction was born when a serious collector of better material left his philatelic estate to the society, as the auctioneer, Uel Barkley, explained.
That material has long since been sold, so now the auction is entirely dependent upon what local collectors submit. Members of any of Northern Ireland’s five stamp and postcard societies are invited to hand in lots, and even members of the general public may do so as long as they get in touch in advance.
Perhaps because many of those present had seen me at Lisburn, I was made to feel most welcome. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.
This year the 400-some lots varied widely and were an interesting mix, especially for collectors of Republic of Ireland stamps. I found 25 lots worth bidding for and won ten of these, usually at the reserve, although most of the value in these was in postage material. As in past years, total sales were somewhat over £2,000.
At no time during my stay did any sectarian subjects arise. Uel Barkley conducted the evening professionally and when a certain town with contentious name came up he described it as "Derry, or Londonderry, or whatever you want to call it."
As for the auction: an entertaining and highly worthwhile evening is what I would call it.
All credit to the society, which as part of its centenary celebration also organised an exhibition a bit later in the year in a attempt to extol the virtues of a collecting to a wider audience. By the way, details were handed out at the auction for the Northern Ireland Postcard Club Collector’s Fair, in Cadogan Park, Belfast, and I hope to attend one day.
For those collectors who might like to visit both the republic and Northern Ireland to take best advantage of the opportunity, I can report on several promising opportunities south of the border. As we arrived in Dublin on a Saturday, my first outing was the next day. We walked our huskies on the beach at Dublin Bay and then went to Blackrock, a pleasant seaside suburb of Dublin and its weekend market off the high street. It boasts a well-stocked stamp, coin and postcard outlet, the Collectors’ Shop, run by James O’Brien. I quickly got stuck in and found a sizable number of Scottish, English (and Northern Ireland) cards of interest, doing a part swap for some of the Irish cards I’d brought along.
O’Brien is apparently one of just two Irish postcard dealers who handle significant amounts of non-Irish material, and I also bought a fair few US and continental European cards from him. I ran out of time long before the supply of boxes was exhausted. O’Brien was busy for the several hours I was there and said business is booming, especially in coins.
The next day, a Monday, I popped into the magnificent General Post Office in city centre Dublin for golf new issues, buying a few extra lenticular ("moving" image) and other attractive mini-sheets, before visiting Dublin’s only stamp shop, Cathedral Stamps. This busy-looking shop on Cathedral Street, above a sports shop, has mainly coins and Irish philatelic material, but in the limited time allotted I found a few euros’ worth of covers and postcards.
Time was short as I still had to get to Bygone Days, a book, coin and postcard stall in George’s Street Arcade, near the shopping Mecca of Grafton Street, which is open daily until 6pm except on Sundays. Again I found a fair few cards of interest.
I have long enjoyed my visits to Ireland, and now -- with new contacts in Northern Ireland, just a short ferry ride from Scotland -- I have even more reasons to visit.
But it must have been even more of a blessing for the collectors of Northern Ireland, now seeing life returning to normal after more than 30 years of the Troubles. Not only could they retreat to their stamp corners and worry about se-tenants instead of sectarian divides, but the stamp clubs largely remained islands of non-sectarian coexistence.
Ray Morgan, a part-time stamp dealer and a prison officer in the troubled province, said its stamp clubs have remained as an oasis of reason and respect. "I see all the troubles in the streets. At the clubs I never see it at all." He noted that a general agreement at the stamp groups has been: "If you want to be a bigot, go out on the street … Catholics and Protestants seem to get along."
To make this fine objective easier, the topics of religion and politics have generally been banished at the meetings Morgan added that he feels the general higher education level of collectors and their quest for knowledge made them much less susceptible to bigotry.
Thus was answered one of the questions I had in late spring last year when I set off, along with wife and four Siberian huskies, in our camper van for a stamp and collectibles fair in Lisburn, a bustling small city some ten miles from Belfast. I had taken tables at the fair, for a small fee, as one part of a trip to see an old high school and university friend, take in the centennial edition of the North of Ireland Philatelic Society’s annual auction, and enjoy some good food and scenery.
The fair, in a church hall that had undergone a multimillion pound renovation a few years ago, was a pleasant and lively event. In fact I had visited it two and a half years earlier, and the atmosphere seemed even better than my pleasant recollections of it.
One of my main aims was to buy Scottish postcards to take back. A major postcard dealer at the fair had not brought his Scottish cards, but arranged for them to be delivered within an hour or two so I could look at them, and I was pleased to make a sizable purchase.
One reason that the event went smoothly and attracted a wide variety of well-informed and many-faceted collectors was that Morgan, an Englishman who came to the province as a British soldier and stayed when he married a local woman, has been organising the fair for 20 years. He has long been active in philately in the province and in fact helped form one of its stamp clubs, the Lagan Valley Philatelic Society, some 20 years ago to try to increase the activities available to collectors.
"Any fair run by Ray Morgan in Northern Ireland will be a well-run fair," was one comment made later in my trip by James O’Brien, a Dublin dealer in stamps, coins and postcards who has participated in the Lisburn events. He also highly praised the hall in Lisburn, by the way.
To be sure, organised philately is hardly a powerhouse in Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.6 million, as it has only four stamp clubs and one for postcard collectors, and no stamps shops and no commercial auctions.
The fact that stamp collectors might seem to be a bit thin on the ground in Northern Ireland can hardly be totally blamed on the Troubles, as I had assumed, however. It was pointed out to me that Belfast had a thriving stamp shop, with up to 12 employees, during most of the Troubles, including the most violent times. When it finally shut for the last time, it was down to the fact that business did not cover the ever-rising costs – hardly a phenomenon limited to Northern Ireland.
One veteran observer commented: For boys in Northern Ireland, it was "rugby, Scouts and collecting and that was it, that was life". To be sure, the problems that are dogging the social side of the hobby around the world – aging populations, alternatives such as computer games and the internet – are factors in the province too. Morgan says he will feel lucky if his fair and many others still exit in ten years, as he feels eBay and other computer-based outlets are attracting collectors to the detriment of social activities.
As a matter of fact, stamp opportunities in the more populous Republic of Ireland are not all that much more prolific. Dublin, a metropolis of about one million people but a booming national capital that seems far bigger, has one stamp shop, two good stamp and postcard stalls in markets and a semi-annual philatelic auction. Ireland does have a fair number of philatelic societies and fairs, with the national one, Stampa, being a well-organised three-day event in the autumn that I have attended several times and found to be excellent for meeting Irish collectors and examining a wide variety of material for sale.
After an enjoyable few days in Dublin, which included a whirlwind tour of stamp and postcard venues, we found ourselves driving our van into the lush and peaceful grounds of a school campus in Finaghy, a suburb of Belfast. We had spent the day enjoying the scenic delights of Northern Ireland, and I was about to take advantage of something else the once-troubled province now has to offer: a stamp auction.
Hunterhouse College, a preparatory school, is the attractive and comfortable venue the North of Ireland Philatelic Society has found for its meetings, and the draw this particular evening was the society’s centennial year auction. Philately is also a great way to meet people, and I had hardly stepped out of the van when I was recognised by someone from the Lisburn fair I had attended a few days earlier. The way to the club venue was quickly pointed out, and before I knew it I was purchasing a coffee from the vending machine and starting to view some of the 400-plus lots.
The North of Ireland society, the province’s oldest and largest stamp group, with some 100 members and small auctions at its monthly meetings, took steps ten years ago to help make up for the lack of a commercial auction. Its annual auction was born when a serious collector of better material left his philatelic estate to the society, as the auctioneer, Uel Barkley, explained.
That material has long since been sold, so now the auction is entirely dependent upon what local collectors submit. Members of any of Northern Ireland’s five stamp and postcard societies are invited to hand in lots, and even members of the general public may do so as long as they get in touch in advance.
Perhaps because many of those present had seen me at Lisburn, I was made to feel most welcome. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.
This year the 400-some lots varied widely and were an interesting mix, especially for collectors of Republic of Ireland stamps. I found 25 lots worth bidding for and won ten of these, usually at the reserve, although most of the value in these was in postage material. As in past years, total sales were somewhat over £2,000.
At no time during my stay did any sectarian subjects arise. Uel Barkley conducted the evening professionally and when a certain town with contentious name came up he described it as "Derry, or Londonderry, or whatever you want to call it."
As for the auction: an entertaining and highly worthwhile evening is what I would call it.
All credit to the society, which as part of its centenary celebration also organised an exhibition a bit later in the year in a attempt to extol the virtues of a collecting to a wider audience. By the way, details were handed out at the auction for the Northern Ireland Postcard Club Collector’s Fair, in Cadogan Park, Belfast, and I hope to attend one day.
For those collectors who might like to visit both the republic and Northern Ireland to take best advantage of the opportunity, I can report on several promising opportunities south of the border. As we arrived in Dublin on a Saturday, my first outing was the next day. We walked our huskies on the beach at Dublin Bay and then went to Blackrock, a pleasant seaside suburb of Dublin and its weekend market off the high street. It boasts a well-stocked stamp, coin and postcard outlet, the Collectors’ Shop, run by James O’Brien. I quickly got stuck in and found a sizable number of Scottish, English (and Northern Ireland) cards of interest, doing a part swap for some of the Irish cards I’d brought along.
O’Brien is apparently one of just two Irish postcard dealers who handle significant amounts of non-Irish material, and I also bought a fair few US and continental European cards from him. I ran out of time long before the supply of boxes was exhausted. O’Brien was busy for the several hours I was there and said business is booming, especially in coins.
The next day, a Monday, I popped into the magnificent General Post Office in city centre Dublin for golf new issues, buying a few extra lenticular ("moving" image) and other attractive mini-sheets, before visiting Dublin’s only stamp shop, Cathedral Stamps. This busy-looking shop on Cathedral Street, above a sports shop, has mainly coins and Irish philatelic material, but in the limited time allotted I found a few euros’ worth of covers and postcards.
Time was short as I still had to get to Bygone Days, a book, coin and postcard stall in George’s Street Arcade, near the shopping Mecca of Grafton Street, which is open daily until 6pm except on Sundays. Again I found a fair few cards of interest.
I have long enjoyed my visits to Ireland, and now -- with new contacts in Northern Ireland, just a short ferry ride from Scotland -- I have even more reasons to visit.
posted by Chad Neighbor at
4.2.08
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