List of people on the postage stamps of Ireland

This is a list of people on stamps of Ireland, including the years when they appeared on a stamp.

1929 commemorative set issued for Catholic emancipation centenary showing Daniel O'Connell

Because no Irish stamps were designed prior to 1929, the first Irish stamps issued by the Provisional Government of Ireland were the then-current British definitive postage stamps bearing a portrait of George V that were overprinted Rialtas Sealadaċ na hÉireann 1922 (translates as Provisional Government of Ireland 1922) and issued on 17 February 1922. The overprint was later changed to Saorstát Éireann 1922 (Irish Free State 1922).

The Irish Free State issued the first commemorative stamps depicting a person on 22 June 1929 when Oifig an Phoist, the Irish Post Office, a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, issued a set of three stamps showing Daniel O'Connell. O'Connell is one of a small number of people shown in two issues, including Wolfe Tone and Arthur Guinness. The 2009 Guinness issue included postmarks with his trade mark signature, a first in philately.[1]

The Department of Posts and Telegraphs and, after 1984, An Post, designed stamps showing statesmen, religious, literary and cultural figures, athletes, etc. Until the mid-1990s it was usual policy not to issue stamps showing living persons, the only exceptions being Douglas Hyde (stamp 1943, d. 1949, illustrated below) and Louis le Brocquy (stamp 1977, d. 2012, illustrated below), but this policy has been put aside and there have recently been several issues showing living persons. For the millennium, 30 millennium stamps were issued showing living Irish sportsmen.