Sir, - An Post deserves to be congratulated on its fine series of stamps featuring Irish birds.
Unfortunately, however, the latest issue (the 41-cent cock chaffinch) merely confirms the distressing gender bias of whoever has the ultimate choice of bird to be illustrated.
Of 23 designs known to me, seven are clearly of male birds, 14 are of ambiguous sex, and only two (the goldcrest and the pied wagtail) are possibly female.
Moreover, the two highest denominations are triumphant and imposing males - the €5 shell duck and the €2 pintail.
Should not these stamps, so widely in evidence and providing such a pernicious role model, be referred to the appropriate office of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform? - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL PURSER,
Strand Road,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.