Myra Maguire and the An Post stamp design collection

We were delighted to work with NCAD Visual Culture student, Beth Leonard, who spent time at NIVAL on a placement during her ‘Visual Culture+’ year (third year) in the autumn of 2024. Here is a piece that Beth wrote, reflecting on her time at NIVAL and one artist in particular that interested her.

I interned at the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) for one semester in 2024 through my Visual Culture+ course at NCAD. I was assigned a collection of stamp design material donated by An Post via Stephen Ferguson who is the Assistant Secretary and curator of An Post’s museum and archive. My job was to go through each archival box and undertake an initial cataloguing of each stamp design by artist, year and description of the piece.

One particular box that I worked on contained stamp designs from 1960 to 1965, a time when stamps seemed to focus on visual appeal rather than mainly expressing the politics of the early Irish state. I noticed the same names of artists kept reappearing among the items I looked at, as many Irish artists saw these stamp design competitions as a chance to have their work seen on a global scale. Letters were a prominent way of communicating around the country – or the world. Stamp design campaigns could spread awareness about world problems as letters were always in transit, being sent from one person to another.

One of the most memorable campaigns I encountered in the An Post collection was from the 1960s with the design competition for World Refugee Year. Fifteen years after World War II ended, and with the tensions of the Cold War rising, refugees in Eastern Europe still suffered the plight of seeking shelter, food and other needs.

An unadopted stamp design by artist Myra Maguire stood out the most to me from this collection because of the fine detail in the flawless illustration she created of a young girl with an innocent expression. She is wearing a dark oversized coat and sitting on a black bag. Behind her is a large white dove with its wing shadowing over her for protection. An olive branch is in the dove’s mouth, symbolizing peace. The young girl can’t see the dove behind her but it seems to act like a guardian angel. The techniques that Maguire used in this illustration stand out well, giving it perfect detail.

I was interested in this stamp design so much that I decided to do a personal research project on Myra Maguire and, fortunately, NIVAL holds a special collection of her work. Maguire was a talented artist and trained at the National College of Art – now the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) – where she was taught by mentors Maurice McGonigal and Seán Keating. After she graduated design from NCA, she worked at the Genealogical Office of Dublin (now part of the National Library of Ireland), which included the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland. From her notes, I gathered that she had plenty of knowledge about the history of heraldry and it was something she wanted to pursue in her future career.

Coats of arms date back to the Middle Ages and were originally used as a way for knights to identify each other. Their surnames were on their shield as their faces would be covered by armour during battles. If you had a coat of arms, you had a high social status – it wasn’t only a matter of having pride in your surname. In the 12th century, knights created their own heraldic symbols which often imparted dignity and vitality. This is why strong animals like lions, eagles and bears appeared frequently along with bold colors like red, black, blue and gold.

Coats of arms in Ireland were different in each province. For example, Leinster is symbolized by a harp, Ulster by the red hand, Connacht by a dimidiated (one half depicted) sword and eagle and Munster by three crowns. Today, depending on which province the surname originated in, one of these symbols would be present in the crest to celebrate where they came from. The colours in the background (field) of every coat of arms are yellow (gold) and white (silver). They can be anywhere on the coat of arms along with the other colours of red (gules), blue (azure), black (sable) or green (vert). These colours are carefully arranged according to heraldic rules: metals (gold and silver) should never be placed on metals, and colours (red, blue, black and green) should not be placed on other colours.

Without the study of heraldry, we would not know as much information about our heritage. It is crucial to understand the social structures of our ancestors to understand the symbols and their standards. Coats of arms were originally designed to function in the past, but understanding each charge (symbol) and tincture (colour), knowing how to navigate a crest and recalling the rules of heraldry is a whole area of study that Maguire had a deep devotion to. The Chief Herald at the time, Edward MacLysaght, commissioned Myra Maguire to illustrate heraldic designs for his book, Irish Families: Their Names, Arms, and Origins (Hodges Figgis & Co. Ltd, 1957). All her attention to detail can be found in her work on heraldry.

As well as heraldry, Maguire had a keen interest in calligraphy. There were many notes and books on calligraphy in NIVAL’s special collection of her work, one of which was Tim O’Neill’s The Irish Hand (Dolmen Press, 1984). This complemented her passion for heraldry. Both crafts require fine attention to detail, whether it is with a pen or a paintbrush. Myra Maguire was underappreciated as a female Irish artist, but she made great use of her talents and gifts. Even though her work wasn’t acknowledged in some instances, she did a lot of research, as is proven by her notes in her file, and her hard work led to her becoming an expert in calligraphy as well as heraldry. After working in the Genealogical Office, she went on to teach night classes as an assistant teacher of commercial art at the College of Commerce in Rathmines and then she started to teach calligraphy part-time in NCA in 1959. She was appointed as assistant lecturer in the school of design alongside artist Muriel Brandt in 1963 and continued to teach calligraphy to students for many years.

As a student that attends NCAD, I find it interesting to be in the environment of artists who studied here and contributed to NIVAL’s special collections such as Myra Maguire. Working with the An Post stamp design collection has allowed me to find new Irish artists’ names and to explore new works, inspiring myself. It has also shown me the importance of patience and perseverance when it comes to wanting something, as many artists entered design competitions repeatedly in the hopes of success. The experience of working in NIVAL has deepened my appreciation for the connection between art, history, and the lasting impact of creative expression in Ireland.