A page dedicated to those unusual cards that don’t fit into specific categories.
Click on images to enlarge.
Updated 4/8/2022
BBC Radio Ulster: Stephanie Hughes
Stephanie Hughes eases the listener into Sunday mornings with ‘This New Day‘ . She also presents ‘The Classical Show‘ on Fridays at 11.05pm.
I’m happy to report that the beautiful Stephanie is still alive and kicking although a little older now. www.stephaniehughes.co.uk
Smallest Shop in Ireland, Barnes’s Gap, Co.Donegal
They don’t come much curiouser than this wonderful card published by Butler’s. A suitably primitive card for a primitive shop, and used by a lady contestant to the iconic Gay Byrne Radio Show on RTE for the ‘Mystery Sound Quiz‘. I wonder if she had the correct answer? What happened to the commodious emporium in the wilderness of Barnes’s Gap? The Gay Byrne Show finished up in 1998.
Larry Moylan: The Dublin Conjurer
Self published promo card.
Dublin Horse Show Sketches
Designed and printed in Ireland by B & N Ltd., Dublin.
Mick’s Pig?
A strange Oirish card – begorrah!
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924)
An Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor – Wiki entry here: Charles Villiers Stanford
Real photo postcard no publisher indicated.
Olive May – Countess of Drogheda (1886-1947)
Edwardian beauty Olive May was a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre, London, who married into the peerage twice. Firstly, she became Lady Victor Paget (marrying in 1913 and divorcing in 1921), and then the Countess of Drogheda (marrying the 10th Earl, Henry Charles Ponsonby Moore, in 1922). As Doris Bartle in Leslie Stuart’s Peggy in March 1911, she sang ‘The Lass With a Lasso’. A sextet of chorus boys in military uniform, were roped-in one by one by Miss May, whose character announced herself as being from ‘Out West’, ‘where a horse’s hooves, the beating of a heart and the swish of a lasso are the only sounds heard on the prairie’.
Postcard is from the London Empire Series.
Irish Scout Jamboree 1985
Unknown publisher.
Creighton Hale (1882-1965)
Born Patrick Fitzgerald in County Cork he emigrated to the USA in the early 1900s and had a successful career as an actor during the silent movie era. However, despite his obvious good looks he failed to make it in when the ‘talkies‘ came in and could only manage to get bit parts which rarely appeared in the credits.
Daniel O’Connell
A strange French ‘silhouette’ card featuring Daniel O’Connell – no publisher indicated.
Naïve art?
A couple of strangely unattractive cards that I found on eBay recently. Not sure of the publisher – the details on the back read ‘Irish Handcraft – A Raymond Card‘.
“Wrong Way” Corrigan
Douglas Corrigan was a famous aviation pioneer who flew from New York to Dublin in July 1938 in a crocked ‘homemade‘ plane. A few days before his flight to Ireland he had flown from California to New York, but had been refused permission to try for the trans-Atlantic crossing as officials considered it to be suicidal due to the state of his plane. However, he was given permission to return to California and on July 17th he took off heading west but soon turned east and out over the Atlantic. 28 hours later he landed at Baldonnel Aerodrome near Dublin. He claimed to have lost his way and stuck to this story for the rest of his life, hence his nickname “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
Pics above are from a hastily produced publicity postcard by the ‘enterprising‘ W.J. Hutchinson who seems to have made the most of his opportunity
A picture of the plane which most observers described as being unfit to become airborne, let alone fly across the Atlantic!
From the excellent Come Here To Me! blog.
Initially, it looked like Corrigan might fall foul of the US aviation authorities, but due to his catching the imagination of the American public he instead returned in triumph to a ticker tape parade in New York.
The following year he starred in a bio-pic feature film “The Flying Irishman” (above) and lived to a ripe old age, only passing away in 1995.
Princess Patricia of Connaught
Left: Princess Patricia of Connaught (Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth; later Lady Patricia Ramsay; 17 March 1886 – 12 January 1974) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. More here: Princess Patricia of Connaught
Card published by J.Beagles & Co.Ltd., London.
Right: In 1915, during the Great War, the International Hotel in Bray was turned into a military hospital and renamed “The Princess Patricia Hospital for Wounded Soldiers”
Card published by Eason & Son Ltd., (Signal Series)
The past is truly a foreign country..
With the 1916 commemorations almost upon us, it‘s interesting to reflect on what might have been had the Easter Rising not taken place. Certainly a few short years before the Rising, Home Rule for the entire island of Ireland had looked to be on the horizon and a visit to Dublin by King George V & Queen Mary in 1911 had gone down generally well. However, card manufacturers and others lost the run of themselves and produced drawings, postcards etc showing the King arriving to open a New Irish Parliament at the old Irish Parliament buildings on College Green. Apparently, these drawings and postcards were widely on sale during the 1911 Royal visit.
Louis Magee (1874 – 1945)
Aloysius Mary Magee played International Rugby for Ireland from 1895-1904 including captaining the team. This unusual card, part of a series featuring various Home Nation players, was published in 1899, but no publisher’s name is given.
THE JUMPING CHURCH OF KILDEMOCK
About a mile to the south of Ardee, Co.Louth, just off the N2 is the Jumping Church of Kildemock. According to legend on a stormy night in 1715, the walls of the church jumped two feet inwards from their original foundations to exclude an excommunicated member of the church who had been buried in the walls of the church. The ruins of the church remain today as does the miscreant wall. Unknown publisher.
PEAT POSTCARDS
There’s surely nothing more strange/curious than the short-lived Irish peat postcard – illustrated below.
Published by The Irish Paper Agency, Dublin this card was postally used in 1906, and while they do have a novelty value their usefulness as a mode of correspondence is debatable.
I couldn’t resist ‘Gold in the Mournes‘ on eBay today for €5.50 – definitely another curiosity!
Another amusing card that I came across recently.
Irish Postcards 