In case it does not come out too clearly, the cover was posted at Ballymahon, Co Longford on 6 May 1916, addressed to Longford, and has been censored by 'Longford No 1' The other part of the censor label on the
reverse reads 'Opened by Censor'.

I have seen covers with this label before but they are not common. The date of posting is, of course, just two weeks after the Easter Rising at a time when Dublin was very much in a mess.

To my knowledge no other town in Ireland applied such local labels. Has anyone ever seen one?

The only dates I can recall seeing for Longford are in early May 1916.

One can but surmise how such a label arose. One might like to think that the local commander of the British Military Forces at Longford took it upon himself to open a local censorship office and dealt with all mail passing
through the local Head Office. One must wonder what facilities were available to the local censor. Was only local mail within Co Longford and the immediately surrounding area censored?  How many covers might have been
censored - Longford County's population was probably around 40,000 at the time, which might imply around, say, 50 to 100,000 letters a week passing through the Head Office (in and out). If 100% censorship was applied that
would represent a lot of work. (it takes my secretary a half hour each morning to open and sort into piles around 100 items of mail, and that is without reading the items or resealing them; from that one might begin to
work out that a team of 15/20 people would have been needed for 100% censorship - I deviate Mr Editor!)

I suspect this censorship office may have been short lived and was possibly unofficially set up - what a pity there is no printer's imprint on the label. On the assumption that they were printed at Longford, one must next
ask how much sticky paper the local printer had a stock of?  Lots of questions....if the office was set up unofficially, was it suppressed by higher authority, or did other local offices exist that used non specifically identified labels?

I would be delighted to hear from anyone who could throw more light on the subject.

Best wishes

Stan Challis
Guernsey

PS  I was lucky to get this - the item was amongst a mass of Great Britain material - the dealer thought Longford was a town in England!

On and from 20 June 1999, the RETURN ADDRESS..... slogan was replaced by the BE AWARE / OF DEPRESSION slogan. This slogan is used on both DMC machines. The RETURN ADDRESS..... slogan has been in use on both machines since 11 June 1999, the EURVOTE slogan having stopped on 10 June 1999 as
the European elections to which it referred took place on 11 June 1999.

From 21 June 1999, the date format reverted to the full stops version and the slogans reverted to the RETURN ADDRESS.... Therefore, it appears that the dash version of the date on 19 and 20 June was an aberration and the BE AWARE.... slogan of 20 June was also an isolated usage.

On 2 July 1999, the time portion of the IMP slogans was first put into general use. (This was also used, on test mail only, on 5 November 1998)   The time format is as follows:

12:30pm                               08:30pm

and appears below the date and above the code number. It is used on both machines 1 and 2.

The earliest time noted on 2 July 1999 was 12:30pm (i.e. half an hour past midday) equivalent to code "25". However, it may well have been used earlier in the day and I just haven't seen it yet. No IMPs from 2 July 1999
have been seen without the time included.

MAURICE BARRETT

At this point in time, bidding by e-mail is recommended.  Trust you're all having a pleasant summer.

Regards,

Joe Foley, Auction Manager

Dave

Michael Connolly

Joe Foley

Karl

Patricia Stillwell Walker, "Ireland: Postal History: 1661 Through the 1890's" in the Champion of  Champions Competition.

Stephen Suffet, "Ireland: Time of Troubles: 1916-1923", a single frame exhibit.

Show hotel is the Holiday Inn at Fort Washington, PA.  The show committee has reserved 75 rooms at a special rate of $85.00 per night.  This is a considerable savings but the rooms are going fast so if you want to take advantage of this rate make your reservations early.  The phone no. is: 1-800-339-0209.  Be sure to   mention that you are part of the PNSE group.  The hotel is located at exit 26 on the PA Turnpike at 432 Pennsylvania Ave. in Fort Washington, PA. 

The ÉPA board meeting will be held on Friday evening and the Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday.  Time and  place to be announced later.  The dates for the show are Friday, Oct. 1st to Sunday, Oct. 3rd.

Dave