Letter With No Address Delivered Successfully to Irish Town

It seems impossible, but Ireland only adopted the postal code system earlier this year (and according to an anecdotal account from a friend in Cork, people there loathe it). In fact, it might actually be downright unnecessary if you consider a recent story about a little letter that traveled 85 miles from Belfast to the small town of Donegal with impossibly vague addressing.

The recipient and destination on the envelope read as such: “Your man Henderson, that boy with the glasses who is doing a PhD up here at Queen’s in Belfast. Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland.”

Inside, the very important letter contained simply: "If this has arrived, you live in a village.”

Donegal is a small town with a population of around 7,000. There, 32-year-old Barry Henderson is indeed studying at Queen's University. The letter made it to him by way of a postman who knows Henderson’s wife, Roisin. He brought it to her office at the Inish Times newspaper, where Roisin is a journalist.

She then posted an image of the daredevil addressing on Facebook, to great fanfare. Roisin wrote, “A guy Barry knows sent him this from Belfast, with that wee note included inside it. The postman delivered it to the Inish Times office when I was out, asking if it could possibly be for my husband. I think it's brilliant. Only in Donegal."

There are few additional details about the sender (besides the fact that Barry Henderson knows him), but suffice it to say the postal prankster was vindicated by the delivery.

Not everyone was so amused. Royal Mail stamped the letter with: "Please remember to write the postcode clearly."