Mind blowing mail: the Irishman who took on the postal service
A Dublin man is out to see just how far Irish postal service, An Post, will go to deliver a letter.
By Nuala McCannBBC News Call it crazy, call it complicated, David Curran has put the mind boggling into the mail and had Irish postmen and women scratching their heads. Suddenly, rabid dogs are the least of their problems. His is a story of eccentric inspiration on his part and top-rate problem solving skills on the part of An Post. Curran's blog, Me Versus An Post put the postal service on their toes. But the Dublin man discovered that they deliver almost anything. The Irish mail service have called him "a postal champion", "a legend of letters", a "king of puzzles" but they'd like a break from the problem solving. On his blog, Me Versus An Post, Mr Curran explained that the postal service had been known to deliver to addresses in Ireland as vague as: "Your One Mary, The First Turn After The Bend, Co Cork". His own interest was sparked by the story of an American tourist who had visited Ireland and on his return, sent a letter addressed simply to: "The man who drives cows through a village in Kilkenny, Ireland." An Post proved moo-vellous and delivered to the correct cowherd. So Mr Curran decided he would set them a few more challenges. He discovered that they could deliver a dice with one line of the address written on each side. They could deliver a toilet roll with a Yeats poem in the middle - "It was a poem about trees and it was in a toilet roll... paper, trees, it just seemed right." The letter with the broken-up jigsaw address was solved and delivered with a polite note explaining why they had to open it up. "Horribly impressive," said Mr Curran. Even the one made up of crossword puzzle clues was solved with style and delivered. It took him a whole night to make that one up: "Writing crosswords is no easy task," he said. Pop-up puzzles and even mirror writing were no problem. "A Worthy Foe," he remarked on his blog. In fact, very little has defeated An Post. There were a few that that did not make it - one was a bizarre mystery puzzle that was intended for a brewery. It was returned to David Curran's house even though he did not put a return address on it... so they were on to him. He has enjoyed other people's stories of letters that have got through. "There is a DJ here called Rick O'Shea and he got a letter addressed simply to Rick O'Shea, The Radio," he said. "An Post appreciated what I did in the way in which it was meant," he said. "But what I found was that people from other countries were amazed at our postal service. They said those letters would never have got through in the countries where they lived." An Post delivered a message of support for David's efforts, stamped with a smile. But now they would just like him to give them them a break and a little time to do what they do best.. deliver the post.