A postal problem that needs to be addressed

Oddly-addressed letters have turned An Post workers into detectives as they try to decipher the intended recipients.

An Post spends a significant amount of money dealing with such post in its regional return letter branches, according to a spokeswoman, Ms Anna McHugh.

"We had the case of a woman who received a postcard addressed to: 'Ms O'Flaherty, the lady who helps everyone and lives behind Superquinn, Ballinteer, Dublin 16'," she said. "That shows you what we are up against."

Another successful delivery was a postcard of a photograph of a dog lying on a wall in Westport.

The photograph was taken by a tourist and posted from Germany with the address: "The family of this dog, living on the road leading from North Mall to the station, Westport, Co Mayo."

Letters were often posted with a question mark after the house number. "And because Ireland is a relatively small country, they get delivered, especially in residential areas. Nobody knows localities like we do because we pass every address every day."

The Royal Mail in Britain spends £10 million a year trying to deliver letters with incomplete, illegible or inaccurate addresses.

Among the recent strange addresses British postal workers deciphered was: "Over the pedestrian crossing, turn left up mid street, tank in garden, before Fraser St, Inverness."

An Post yesterday urged people to put a return address on the top left-hand corner of the envelope so letters could be returned when the addressee could not be identified.