WE’RE GETTING SO close to Irish postcodes we can almost smell them.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has signed the contract with Capita Ireland for the design and roll out of the national system, and by this time next year we should be on the cusp of adding the 7 character code onto our addresses.

No more internet shopping frustration, no more embarrassment when friends from abroad ask us where the rest of our address is, no more losing deliveries into the ether.

What we will miss though, is the unofficial postcode system we’ve come to know and love in Ireland:

Up around by the blue barn there and over the road a bit until you see Sean O’Brien’s three sheep standing under the tree.

Here are some typically Irish directions that will always beat any fancy postcode hands down:

1. So many bungalows

Source: Hayley Bolduc/Flickr

2. What’s there now?

Source: Jaqian/Flickr

3. Every garden has nasturtiums

Source: Sermoa/Flickr

4. Which Doyles is that now?

5. What do you mean you don’t know the Walshes?

Source: Peter Mooney/Flickr

6. When in Dublin…

Source: informatique/Flickr

7. Ah, the N7

Source: Wikimedia Commons

8. Sure what do you need a postcode for in anyways?

Source: Sludgegulper/Flickr

Inspired by #DonegalPostcodes

Government to open up new postcode database to businesses – at a cost>

Did you hear Donegal is getting its own special postcodes?>