So dear readers, the following letter is self explanatory. - I hope!
This is letter no. 12. But I thought the story of how Eircodes came into being was interesting and worthy of inclusion in my not so wild and exciting blog these days!
Topic: Eircode
System development
Dear Mr. Donnelly,
For much of last year I was lying on the sofa saving the world by watching Agatha Christie re-runs. This year, I decided to branch out.
So at the beginning of the year, I determined I would write one thank-you correspondence to someone every week. And you sir, and your co-horts in the Eircoding success story, are close to the top of the list! This I decided after reading the Irish Times article on eircodes. Eircode comes good and finds its tipping point. Brian Hutton. Saturday the 12th of December 2020.
On the one hand mea culpa, and on the other – who knew!
A) Mea Culpa.
Now in March 2021 the whole world – in Ireland at any rate, accepts that the Eircode system is a complete success. Indeed a thundering success!
No one would doubt that the delivery of millions of online purchases this past year, was a herculean task that would no doubt have worked far less smoothly were it now for a successful Eircode system already in place. For myself I can think of a package weighing 23 Kilos that arrived to me at my new Irish address most timely; the delivery agent was interested in nothing only my eircode.
Alas I am obliged to put on record, that I was one of the unenlightened masses back in 2015 who derided the ´waste of money´ put into bringing the Eircode system into place. `Sur´ does n´t every post person in the whole country know where everyone lives within twenty miles their postal beat? And they and all their relations, and their ex´s who have recently moved in/out too, and that going back three generations´ said I. And the rest of the ill informed masses would surely have concurred.
And that is indeed true, and all respect to these excellent post persons who are so well up on local genealogy. But the Eircodes system, we all know now, makes life easier during global pandemics and God knows what. And more, eircodes we are now aware will set us up to have a smoother working society in the years to come. And I am sure An Post would agree.
Like I said. Mea Culpa.
B) Who knew!
Brian Hutton´s informative article in the Irish Times put the reader straight on all sorts of undesirable issues with a zip code system that could have come up - but that did not come up because of all the thought, planning, scenario envisioning etc that you and your team at Auto-Address, your associates at Capita and Bearing Point et al put in to the task. - And that before you even started on the laborious and rigorous task of applying an individual eircode to every individual address in the country. - What exhausting work, holy God I need a cup of Barry´s just reading that sentence,
I mean who knew about the risk of ´postcode bias´. Or concerns about a ´B´being mixed up with an `8´, or the letter `N` sounding like the letter ´M´. And then to make sure that no two neighbouring addresses had similar eircodes. NOT to mention the consideration that an innocent eircode might be confused for those in the know with a ´less than innocent´ abbreviation. - Checked for and all that sorted, both in English and Irish before the system went into place!
(After the Irish Times article was published, I bet there was a big spike on internet dictionaries for the meaning of the abbreviation for ´M..F´. ö).
In addition to the reasons we need Eircode mentioned in Mr. Hutten´s article in the Irish Times, the list of 13 reasons to use eircodes listed on your website is good, but not exhaustive. There is of course the no brainer reason that eircodes are vital now for National Ambulance Service and the Local Fire brigades, speeding up identifying addresses and perhaps saving lives in the process.
But your list does not include eircodes supporting the ´directionally challenged´. As recently as yesterday a friend who is severely ´directionally challenged´ and for whom visiting unknown addresses is a vital part of her work, was extolling the Eircode system. She explained how very much less stressful her work and her life on the road has become thanks to eircodes.
So Mr. Donnelly I offer you and all those involved with setting up Ireland´s excellent Eircode system congratulations, and my thanks.
Even when five years deferred.
Continued success to you all!
Stay well.
Hausfrau Róisín....
Eircode: R95XC...
