An Post

An Post, the Irish postal service, came into being in 1984 when, under the terms of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, the Post Office services of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (P&T) were divided between An Post and Telecom Éireann, the telecommunications operator (rebranded as Eircom after privatisation in 1999 and in 2015 as Eir). At its inception, during the early years of the Irish Free State, the Department of Posts and Telegraphs was the country's largest department of state, and its employees (most of them postmen) constituted the largest sector of the civil service.

Prior to this, the Post Office in Ireland had been under the control of various Postmasters General, Irish and British, with the appointment of Evan Vaughan as postmaster in Dublin in 1638, generally accepted as the date for the establishment of a semi-formal postal system in Ireland. Oliver Cromwell's Postal Act of 1657 created a combined General Post Office for the three kingdoms of Ireland, Scotland, and England; the position was affirmed by Charles II and his parliament by the Post Office Act 1660.

As of 2020, An Post remains one of Ireland's largest employers but it has undergone considerable downsizing. In 2020, Munster's only sorting centre in Little Island, Cork closed. The closure of individual branches in rural areas has become a significant political issue. In 2014, all parts of An Post made a profit for the first time in eight years. As of 2018 there were approximately 1,100 An Post offices and over 100 postal agents across Ireland.

The Irish government announced the introduction of a postcode system, Eircode, in Ireland from 2008 though An Post was against the system at the time, saying it was unnecessary. The introduction of Eircodes took place on 13 July 2015, after almost a decade of delays.

All parcels arriving in Ireland pass through An Post's mail centre in Portlaoise, where customs officials are on duty to inspect them.

An Post adopted its current logo on 14 December 2018; it did not make its first appearance until 13 March 2019. On branded signage, individual post offices are labelled Oifig an Phoist or (in English) 'Post Office'.

On 22 June 2023, An Post moved from its historic headquarters in the General Post Office building on O'Connell Street in Dublin to new premises at North Wall Quay.

An Post is involved in a number of joint venture operations and also has several subsidiaries. It has complete ownership of some of these, while it is part-owner of others, such as the An Post National Lottery Company and the Prize Bond Company Limited.

An Post National Lottery Company

An Post held the licence granted by the Minister for Finance to run the National Lottery through its subsidiary, An Post National Lottery Company until February 2014. All employees of An Post National Lottery Company were seconded from An Post, and as such were employed and paid by An Post rather than by the subsidiary. Since 2014, the National Lottery has been operated by Premier Lotteries Ireland, in which An Post is a stakeholder.

An Post Transaction Services

In 2003, An Post set up a new division to run its post office and transaction services business, entitled An Post Transaction Services or PostTS. It rebranded its post offices network as "Post Office" or "Oifig an Phoist" with a new, white-and-red logo, and introduced banking services in conjunction with Allied Irish Banks. This followed the introduction of a service whereby newsagents could provide some Post Office services. This service, entitled PostPoint and operated as subsidiary of An Post, was originally formed in 2000 to sell mobile phone top-ups over-the-counter to Eircell subscribers.

In 2005 PostTS sold its foreign operations, and the rebranding effort largely reversed, with the traditional An Post logo restored to Post Offices. Between 2005 and 2006, An Post sold its interest in the Post TS UK and An Post Transaction Services businesses to Alphyra, for a reported €59.3M.