AN POST will this year publish a special stamp to mark the centenary of Dracula, but it has ignored requests to commemorate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of St Colmcille.
Last week the Royal Mail issued two stamps featuring Colmcille, known as St Columba in Britain. They were part of a series of four featuring the Irish saint, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland, and St Augustine, founder of the Christian church in southern England.
Colmcille died in 597, the year Augustine arrived in England. A Royal Mail spokesman said yesterday they were marking "a highly significant anniversary.
The roles of both Columba and Augustine were crucial in the development of Christianity in Britain".
A spokesman for An Post, Mr David Curt in, said the Irish post office had no plans to commemorate either saint. He said the stamp to commemorate the publication in 1897 of the horror novel Dracula, by Dublin author Bram Stoker, was "all about commerce" and it would be much in demand among stamp collectors.