Austin Clarke stamp

Austin Clarke was one of Ireland’s leading writers. Though he wrote novels, plays, and memoirs and was a cofounder of Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, he’s best known for poems that employ complex patterns of assonance and half rhyme, techniques he drew from his deep knowledge of classical Irish language poetry. An Post issued this stamp to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 1974. Designed by David Pakenham at So Studio using Ballinger Mono; first day cover (not shown) also features An Post Sans, the Irish post office’s proprietary typeface.