Green for 104 Years

Having previously posted about post boxes, I couldn't help but notice this unusual Royal box in Cork in the Republic of Ireland. It's a piece of living history and still in use today more than a hundred years after it was first installed outside the Imperial Hotel in the city.

Edward the VII post boxes are some of the most uncommon, although not as rare as Edward VIII post boxes. Edward VII only reigned for less than ten years while Edward VIII only reigned for 326 days before he abdicated the throne.

What makes this box even more unusual though is the fact that it bears the cipher of a King while it is in daily use in a Republic. It would originally have been painted red like all other British post boxes but after Irish independence hundreds of post boxes all over Ireland were transferred to the new Irish postal service and painted green.

Ireland did not gain independence on a single day. Instead, it happened through a series of key events between 1919 and 1949. Independence started with a Declaration of Independence in 1919, led to self-rule for 26 counties in 1922, at which point the British postal infrastructure changed hands, and finished when the nation became a fully independent republic in 1949.

So this box has been green for 104 years.