Sir, - Current correspondence on the above subject reminds me of the years I spent in Pearse Street Sorting Office during the 1940s. Returned letters showed some interesting endorsements, such as that on a letter addressed to a resident of a tenement house: "Unable to effect delivery, bad woman in hall." Then there was the letter addressed to BETTY GRABLE, HOLLYWOOD, which came back from Wicklow endorsed: "Not known Hollywood, Co Wicklow, try Hollywood, Co Down", and the letter for the British Queen Mother, addressed: HER MAJESTY QUEEN MARY, OSBORNE, I.O.W., and which bore the endorsement: "Not known Ashbourne, try Mulhuddart."
Letter boxes at ground level were not popular among postmen then either, and posed problems for them, especially when they tried to push say, a photograph through without folding it. One such was endorsed: "Unable to effect delivery. N A, (i.e., no attention). Letter box near ground, item says Do Not Bend."
Yours, etc.,
Villa Park Gardens,
Dublin 7.