Robert Ballagh postage stamp designs

This list documents postage stamp designs by the Irish artist, Robert Ballagh for the Irish postal service.^[1]

Ballagh's first postage stamp design was released on 4 September 1973. It commemorated the centenary of the World Meteorological Organisation and depicted a weather map of northwestern Europe. His portrayal of Ireland did not show the border with Northern Ireland, provoking the unionist politician Ian Paisley to demand in the British House of Commons that the British government should make a formal objection, even though no other international borders were shown, either.^[2][1]: 50

Later design contracts included the centenaries of the Universal Postal Union and the first telephone transmission, the golden jubilee of Ireland's national electricity utility, the centenaries of the births of Patrick Pearse and Éamon de Valera and commemorations of various other Irish statesmen, issues related to Scouting, Guiding and the Boys' Brigade, Irish festivals, the Irish lighthouse authority and one of Ireland's annual "love stamps".^[1]: 101

One stamp design was rejected by the government, after stamps had already been printed, possibly due to political interference; the stamps and plates were destroyed.^[3]: 41 A version of the stamp was eventually released more than 15 years later.^[3]: 68 On another occasion, in 1994, he was commissioned to produce stamps commemorating five Irish Nobel Prize winners; four were released but the fifth was cancelled when the Irish postal service, An Post, belatedly realised that the subject, physicist Ernest Walton, was still alive.^{[3]: 67–68}