The celebration of unsung heroes such as Archbishop Marsh is, according to Anna McHugh of An Post, what commemorative stamps are all about. "In a country where there is no honours system, a commemorative stamp is a way of celebrating an individual or an institution and since they [stamps] travel all over the world, they do represent the country, its thinking and its culture." Ideas for special stamps come in to An Post all the time, she says. "But what people sometimes don't realise is, we work about two years ahead - at the moment we're looking at projects for 2003 and even 2004. Although we haven't finalised next year's programme yet; there's still a bit of tweaking to be done here and there."
Tucked modestly into the curved wall that runs along the side of St Patrick's Cathedral - an oasis of meditative calm amid screaming traffic and ever-encroaching apartment blocks - is one of the greatest jewels in Dublin's historical crown. Built in 1701 by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, it was Ireland's first public library, and this year it celebrates its 300th anniversary with a series of special events and exhibitions.
An Post has meanwhile issued a commemorative 30-pence stamp. A tasteful affair in muted shades of green and brown, it shows the archbishop in front of one of the ornate "cages" in which, legend has it, readers used to be locked lest they were tempted to do a little unauthorised "borrowing" of rare books. A companion 32pence stamp marks the 450th anniversary of the first book printed in Ireland, The Boke of Common Prayer, with a reproduction of the original title page.
Inside the library, graceful dark-oak bookcases are filled with beautifully bound books on topics ranging from medicine to mathematics, wild flowers to witchcraft. "What you're seeing is what Swift saw," muses the library's keeper, Dr Muriel McCarthy - though she's quick to point out that, with the help of the Ireland Funds, recent renovation work has provided 21stcentury visitors to the library with such contemporary comforts as a kitchen, a bathroom and a small lecture theatre, all of which are located in a downstairs space beneath the library itself.
A private donation from an American couple also built a tiny bindery in the back garden, where four members of staff are engaged on a variety of paper conservation work, from the sprucing-up of 15th-century vellum manuscripts for the National Archive to the washing and drying of prints for the National Library.
Within months of arriving in Dublin as Provost of Trinity College, Archbishop Marsh discovered the city's lack of a library and set about providing a reading space for "graduates and gentlemen". "No mention of women, needless to say," comments Dr McCarthy, who, as the first woman keeper, is conscious of such things. "But women did work here - there was a Frances Cobb who came all the way from Newbridge, Co Kildare, to do research work in the library, and later became a prominent member of the women's movement in England."
But the library, she says, is remarkable for the breadth of material contained in its 25,000 books. "All the great 17th-century writers are here - Protestant and Catholic," she says. "And the first librarian, a Huguenot refugee called Elias Bouhereau who fled from France in 1685, managed to bring his books with him. Many of them are very rare. If he had left them in France, they would have been burned. We have everything here - all the great thinkers, poetry, lute music. We even have the story of the first blood transfusion done in Ireland - which was from a lamb to a boy, so not surprisingly perhaps, was a failure."
The current exhibition, Leaves From The Past, focuses on botanical books, many exquisitely illustrated - one rather graphically with a drawing which portrays the dreadful consequences of over indulging in figs.
"We're delighted with the stamp," says Dr McCarthy, referring to that depicting Archbishop Marsh. She describes it as a tribute to a man so lacking in ego that he named his life's work after his church, St Sepulchre, rather than himself. "He was a truly great scholar, he built what is a magnificent example of a scholar's library - and he beggared himself in the process."
The celebration of unsung heroes such as Archbishop Marsh is, according to Anna McHugh of An Post, what commemorative stamps are all about. "In a country where there is no honours system, a commemorative stamp is a way of celebrating an individual or an institution and since they [stamps] travel all over the world, they do represent the country, its thinking and its culture." Ideas for special stamps come in to An Post all the time, she says. "But what people sometimes don't realise is, we work about two years ahead - at the moment we're looking at projects for 2003 and even 2004. Although we haven't finalised next year's programme yet; there's still a bit of tweaking to be done here and there."
Ideas are short-listed, Cabinet approval sought and then it's a matter of finalising the designs - a tricky business when, as is often the case, complex visual ideas are to be represented in this miniature format. Irish artists are sometimes commissioned to do paintings - in the case of Marsh's Library, a selection of potential images was collected by An Post's design committee, and the finished stamps were produced by a company called Creative Inputs.
To make it on to an Irish stamp you need to be either well dead, like Archbishop Marsh, or representing an institution, as was Gay Byrne when he appeared on a recent commemoration of Irish broadcasting. You could also make it if you're a head of state, such as Pope John Paul II. "When we featured Zig and Zag, somebody wrote in and complained," says Anna McHugh. "I wrote back pointing out that they're heads of state on the planet Zog."
The Marsh's Library 30-pence stamp and the Boke of Common Prayer 32-pence stamp will be available from post offices for approximately another six months. A number of celebratory events are planned for the library's 300th anniversary, including special services in Trinity College Chapel (this Thursday, 5.15 p.m.), at Christ Church Cathedral (May 5th, 5 p.m.) and at St Patrick's Cathedral (May 27th, 3.15 p.m.) The tercentenary exhibition, This Golden Fleece, will be opened on July 11th by the President, Mrs Mary McAleese, and a three-day conference will take place in October. Details from the library at 01-4543511.